


Anatomy Sure Is Strange

by Werepirechick



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Character Study, Gen, i'll post any trigger warnings that apply in chapter, it'll mostly just be them explaining their weird mutant bits to their human friends, so it won't get too icky i don't think, the show isn't gonna give me this so i'mma do it myself, this is mostly cause i love talking and theorizing about these kids and their mutantness, update 14/06/16: i lied about the icky, whoops, you all can enjoy it too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2018-06-05 00:09:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 30,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6681622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Werepirechick/pseuds/Werepirechick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being a mutant is difficult and weird. Being a teenage mutant going through puberty is even more so. This is series of pieces about the turtle's unexplained bits of anatomical weirdness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Am I over thinking this children's show? Maybe a little. Do I regret it? Not yet!

It's within the first few days of April being with them that the question comes up.

“What's up with your guys’ eyes?” She asked over breakfast with Leo and Mikey, pointing at her own eye for emphasis.

“Whata'ya mean?” Mikey muffled through some cereal.

“I mean, sometimes your eyes go all white and stuff. What's that all about,” April clarified. “I didn't get a chance to ask till now.”

“Oh, uh, that's our third eye-lid,” Leo answered.

April's nose wrinkled in confusion. “You have three eye-lids? Why?”

Leo scratched the back of his neck with a thoughtful frown. “I don't really remember myself, Donnie explained it one time when we were younger, but I sorta got lost mid-way. Sorry, you really should be asking Donatello about this.”

“Asking me about what?” Donatello questioned as he wandered into the kitchen. From the bags under his eyes and mask hanging limp around his neck, it's likely this wasn't breakfast so much as a post-science binge snack. He picked up an old chipped mug, (labelled 'Donnie's', a gift from Mikey last Christmas), by the coffee maker and poured himself a cup.

“Your three eye-lids thing,” April said.

“Ah, that,” Donnie said absentmindedly. Usually he'd have been more excited, it was April after all, but at that point he couldn't remember how long he'd been awake; so emotions had taken a back seat. He nursed his cup of coffee while he launched into explanation. “As far as I've been able to figure, it's another mutation. You know how second eye-lids are used by reptiles for underwater or clearing dust out, they're clear so we can still see what's happening around us and avoid danger. Our third eye-lid is similar. It's thicker than our secondary one, which is for swimming, but we can still see through it even if it looks all white. Best guess I have is that it's there to protect our eye-balls from debree and dirt in the middle of combat. It won't tear as easily as the second eye-lid, so it protects us better.” He took a sip of his coffee and blinked blearily. “Or something. I have only theoretical possibilities to go off of and only four subjects of study. I'll let you know if I was right when one of us croaks and I examine the body.”

“Donnie!” Leo scolded as April's eyes widened.

“Right, sorry, manners,” Donnie said, rolling his eyes. “Regardless of their function, we have third eye-lids. End of story.”

“I think they look pretty cool,” Mikey commented, flicking said third eye-lids open and closed. “I think they make the foot ninjas nervous. Plus! We look a little like batman!”

“Uh huh,” Donnie mumbled through another sip of coffee. “Another good point. They might be a sort of intimidation tactic, considering that most humans find creatures without human like eyes to be unsettling and dangerous seeming. I don't know where that would have come from, but with mutagen, it's a hit and miss sort of rapid evolution.” Donnie sipped his coffee again and started walking away, apparently done with talking.

As he walked past his younger brother, Mikey grabbed his brother's hand before he went by and pushed a plate of eggs and toast plus fork into his three fingers; he'd been planning on taking it to Donatello after breakfast anyways. Donnie barely registered it and kept walking soon as he was free. Mikey tsked, his brother really did need to take better care of himself.

April coughed nervously, a little off-put by Donatello's unusual behavior. “So, third eye-lids. Pretty neat.”

“Totally agree bruh,” Mikey grinned, standing up and taking their dirty dishes to the sink.

“I'm sorry about Donnie's attitude, he gets like that after more than twenty-four hours without sleep,” Leonardo explained sheepishly.

April raised an eyebrow. “Is that healthy?”

“No, but it's normal for him,” Leo said, shrugging. “If we didn't let him get it out of his system, he'd be grumpy like you wouldn't believe. He’ll probably collapse pretty soon here, and we’ll get him into bed then.”

April hmmed as she finished her apple-juice box, from the packet she'd bought with her pocket money for the family. Same as with the eggs and bread; a human teenager couldn't live off the stuff the turtles did. Though, since they were helping her find her father, she let them have most of the supplies. She could always buy more later with the money she had taken from her father's emergency cash supply at home.

“You know he's right. Donnie, that is,” April said suddenly. “About humans being put off by your lack of irises’. First time I saw it, I was a little freaked out to be honest.”

“That's fair,” Mikey said as the dishes clanked in the sink. “We are a little weird compared to a human. And! You didn't know us yet, so duh you'd be a little freaked out.”

“We are pretty unique,” Leo agreed with a chuckle.

'Unique is understating it,' April thought to herself. She didn't say anything though; these were good people helping her get her dad back.

Even if, yes, they were a little weird


	2. Need for heat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Casey is a nosy guest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day! *gasp!*  
> I have no control over my writing muse.

Raph, Casey, and Mikey were hanging out in the T.V. area when Casey blurted out, “I gotta piss man, where's your bathroom?”

Raph rolled his eyes. “You have zero tact Jones-“ “Oh like you do!” “- And it's down the hall that way,” Raph pointed at the branch of tunnels that lead towards the brothers' bedrooms. “It's the last door, the one with all the duct tape across it.”

“Thanks bro!” Casey said as he climbed over the ledge and sprinted for the hall. Raph settled back down and refocused on the 'Crognard the Barbarian' marathon Mikey had dragged them into. Not a minute later there was a loud crash and the sound of breaking glass. Raph grumbled to himself as he got up from his comfortable position and went to check on his idiot human friend.

“The fuck was that, Jones?” Raph yelled as he headed for the bathroom.

“I swear I didn't mean to!” Was Casey's reply from the behind the door. “It's not my fault you guys have like a hundred lamps in here!”

Raphael cursed again and kicked open the door. “You better be decent Casey.”

Inside, a guilty looking Casey Jones stood among a pile of fallen lamps and broken bulbs. Casey rubbed the back of his neck, looking rightfully apologetic. “Uh, sorry ‘bout your lights 'n' stuff. I just wanted to see how it worked.”

“Duuuuuude,” Mikey drawled from the doorway, having come to check out what had caused the noise. “It took Donnie like forever to set those up. He's gonna be pissed man!”

“Why the hell do you got lamps in the bathroom anyways?!” Casey groused. “Ain't that a hazard or something?”

“They're heating lamps numbskull, cause we're reptiles? Fucking duh,” Raph spat, starting to pick up the tangle of lamps. “Donnie put 'em together a few years ago so we could get the energy an’ vitamins we needed. It made us a hell of a lot healthier than we used to be. We were lucky we even found this many in the first place!”

Casey looked really sorry then. “Shit, I didn't know. I wouldn’t a touched them if I knew,” He bent down and helped Raph pick up the amalgamate of lamps taped and welded together. He examined the lamps themselves, looking for wires loose or heads that were too bent to salvage. “I'll buy you guys some new bulbs, the lamps don't look too broken.”

“Well, at least we got the other three,” Mikey commented, always looking for the bright side of things. Casey nodded; thankful he hadn't wrecked all of them. The other three lamp tangles lined ceiling on the side of the left wall of the large-ish room, over top of piles of towels. The tub/shower the turtles owned was on the other side, and the toilet was near the door.

“Think Don'll be too mad?” Casey asked as they finished placing the lamps on the pile it'd hung over originally.

“He'll be pissy until you get the new bulbs, but mostly cause that was his heat lamp. Now he's gotta share with us,” Raph said as he went for the broom behind the open door. He tossed it at Casey, who caught it. “Sweep up, it's your mess.”

“Yeah, okay,” Casey got to work, making sure to catch every piece of wayward glass. This was a place where people bathed after all; not to mention none of the inhabitants wore shoes... “Sorry again.”

“Don't sweat it dude,” Mikey said with a wave of his hand. “It happens to the best of us. Just replace the stuff you broke and we'll call it even.”

Casey nodded as kept sweeping. As he lifted a bit of the towel pile to get at a piece, he asked, “So you said the lights made you guys healthier? How does that work.”

“Weeeell... even humans need sunlight right? And we're mostly turtle, so we definitely need it,” Michelangelo said as he watched his friend sweep. “And we can't get it cause we gotta live down here, so-”

“-We'd get sick a lot, when we were kids,” Raph cut in. He held the dust pan and crouched down for Casey to sweep into it. “Before Donatello started to really get at machines and tech shit, we lived pretty shittily down here. We're not made to live in the sewers, Jones. Reptiles need heat and sunlight to live, and we didn't get either most days. I’m not saying this cause I want your pity Case, but we coulda died a number of winters. Heck, sometimes even when it was a warm season. Until Donnie started fixing any heat lamps he could get his hands on, we didn't have a lot of energy; and getting up and moving was a nightmare.”

“One time, like five winters ago, Leo got really sick and wouldn't wake up,” Mikey said in a hushed tone. “That was definitely one of the worst winters. It was so cold I thought my fingers were gonna fall off!”

“Almost did too,” Raph grunted. Casey finished sweeping the glass into the dust pan and they both stood up. “So basically, without the heat lamps, we wouldn't be able to do half the shit we can. So replace the bulbs sooner than later, okay?”

“Yeah, sure,” Casey said as Raphael dumped the glass into the garbage can beside the sink. He mentally counted how much money he had stashed in his room and made a note to look up how much reptile specific bulbs were. Casey had been saving that cash for a new hockey stick or some new hoodies, but he figured his friends needed it more. He wouldn’t die without a new coat after all.

Casey put the broom back behind the door and followed the two turtles out.  
It was only mid-spring above ground, but Casey was already thinking about what sort of winter gear he could get his hands on for the brothers. Maybe even a new bunch of lamps to go with the bulbs…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't touch shit you don't own Casey, god.  
> Also, Casey is about to learn how fucking expensive pet supplies is. I don't own a reptile (yet), but I know that those bulbs cost a lot more than regular ones.
> 
> (I think I'll go back to Leo almost dying later on....)


	3. Shedding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teenage boys are gross.  
> So. Gross.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for mention of feminine bleeding

April and Casey, between them heavily filled plastic bags of snacks, headed down the way into the lair. It was movie night, Friday evening to be precise, and the two humans were looking forwards to spending time with their turtle friends; with all the activity of fighting enemies and mid-term tests, they hadn't seen the turtles in person for two weeks now.

Talking amicably, they entered by pushing through the turnstiles.

 

"Hey dudes, got the munchies!" Casey yelled, announcing their presence.

 

"Finally! Thought you weren't gonna show," Raphael yelled back from his stance in front of his punching dummy.

 

"Some people have something called  _school_ shell head," Casey shot back, punctuating his words by throwing his bag of goodies at Raph.  


Raph caught the bag one handed and immediately dug into it looking for his preferred snacks. April tsked as she held the rest of the snacks from Casey's grabbing hands. "Wait until we actually start the movie before you eat them all, we need enough for everyone!"

 

"Do I hear the sound of crinkling chips?" Mikey's hopeful voice called from the kitchen.

 

"Got three different kinds bro!" Casey made another grab for said chips while April continued side stepping him. April slipped around the other teen to flop down on the couch, but stood back up immediately when she felt something poke her sharply.

 

"Ack, what the hell?" She said, picking up the thing. It was about the size of her palm, pale green and opaque. "Raph, what did I just sit on?"

 

"Hm?" Raph muffled through a mouthful of potato chips. April held up the object. Raph swallowed his chips and answered. "Oh that, I'm pretty sure that's one of Leo's scutes."

 

"His what?" Casey asked.

 

"S'like finger nail clippings, our shells drop 'em once and a while to make new ones," Raph explained as April made a squeak of disgust and dropped the scute.

 

April, as she wiped her hand on her pants, looked around the lair and realized that there were more scutes lying around, as well as bits of what looked like...

 

"Oh my god your shedding your skin," April said, her face twisting up as she nudged a clump of dead skin with her foot.

 

" _What?_ Grody!" Casey said, looking the absolute opposite of grossed out. He reached down to touch a piece of scute before April smacked his hand away.

 

She took a deep breath and breathed out slowly. _'_ _Patience is a virtue April, remember this.'_ "Raph, why didn't you clean up your... skin?"

 

Raphael shrugged. "We were gonna, but forgot to."

 

"And by _we_ he means  _he_ ," Donnie deadpanned as he came out of the lab. He turned his eyes to April and rubbed the back of his head, looking chagrined. "It was Raph's turn to sweep the lair, but I suppose we're all to blame for leaving our shedding everywhere."

 

Casey examined the two turtles present and noticed for the first time, both had pieces of whiter skin peeling off bits of their arms and legs. Leo and Mikey entered the room from the kitchen and a quick glance confirmed they too had skin peeling off.

 

"So like, are you all on a turtle period?" Casey said, and was met with a wave of,  _"What-" "-fuck no-" "-dude, what's a-" "-those aren't physically possible for us-",_ until he raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay! Jeeze!"

 

"Shut up all of you and grab some brooms!" April said, ending the argument. "If you want me to stay for a movie night, then clean up all your gross skin cells everywhere."

 

"Your not the boss of-" Raph began, but April's look of _'I_ _dare you to finish that sentence'_ made him snap his mouth closed. He grumbled under his breath while he took a broom from Mikey and started sweeping.

 

April sighed and rubbed her temples with her free hand. "Why are you shedding anyways, you were fine two weeks ago."

 

"Oh it's a periodic thing," Donnie replied, twirling his broom like his Bo-Staff. He plopped the brush onto the ground again and leaned on it with his chin. "Once in a while our skin wears out and we lose the patches that are ready to go. The shells are similar, but the flakes that come off a little different; mostly because our shells are bone and not scales. Most of the time it's not all at once like this, but I'm guessing the extra stress got to us. Like with a cat's hair falling out from stress, our skin is shedding because we've been putting our noses to the grinder with combat and training lately."

 

"It's kinda gross, but not as gross as Raphie not showering regularly," Mikey said, deliberately antagonizing his older brother. He ducked backwards to avoid the sweep of Raph's broom aimed at his head and scuttled away in a crab/bridge walk; cackling as Raph chased him.

 

"Mmhm," April agreed with Mikey. She checked the couch for any stray bits of dead skin before finally sitting down. Casey flopped down beside her put his arms along the back of the couch. April rolled her eyes, but ignored the gesture. "So Casey, what do you know about periods anyways?"

 

"Oh, uh," Casey coughed awkwardly. "See we got this family of six across the hall of my apartment right? An' five of them are girls. They've been our neighbors since I was really little, an' I'm same age as the two middle girls and just a little younger than the eldest. Their family looked after me a lot when I was little so I got pretty close to them. Long story short, I was sleeping over when the eldest girl got her first period," Casey shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "Her mom gave me a talk about periods same time as them, seeing as I had a little sister who was gonna have one in a few years. I mean, Mrs. Simon gave me an option to  _not_ have the talk, but I figured why not since my mom wasn't around to do anymore with my sister..."

 

"Aw, Casey," April cooed, elbowing him in the side. "Your such a softie sometimes."

 

"Still doesn't explain why you asked if we were having one," Leo said as he walked behind them with a dust pan.

 

"Well, Harmony, she's one of the two who's the same age as me, told me girls' periods sometimes sync up if they spend enough time together," Casey replied. "So like once a month, four teenage girls across from my house have a period at the same time. Lotta chocolate gets bought around then."

 

"Oooh~, chocolate!" Michelangelo licked his lips thinking about the rare treat. Raphael, sitting on top of Mikey's shell, smacked him on the back of the head.

 

"That's... actually a fair assumption I guess," Donnie admitted as he swept the last of the skin into Leo's dust pan. "The biological clocks of close individuals do have an effect on each other. Us shedding all at the same time because of something like that actually makes sense. You hit your head or something, Jones?"

 

"Whatever Don, I can be smart too!" Casey said, sticking his tongue out.

 

"Uh huh, mature too it seems," Donnie said dryly. Leo rolled his eyes at both of them and took the broom and dust pan to the kitchen, picking up Raph's broom and Mikey's dust pan along the way.

 

"Raph, you can stop choking Mikey now," Leo said as he dropped the brooms back in the kitchen. "If we want to finish the movie before Sensei gets back from his walk, we should start sooner than later."

 

Raph released Mikey, who scrambled away on all fours before his brother could change his mind. They all reconvened in the media area, sitting down in their favored positions. Leo and Raph sat in bean bags in front of the couch, while Donnie dropped into the empty seat on April's other side. Mikey quickly popped the aging VHS tape into the player before shuffling back to rest on his elbows in the center of the floor.

 

As the credits for the movie started, April noticed Donatello was keeping a bit more distance than usual from her. She looked at the much discussed flaking skin patches on his limps and thought  _'Ah, he's being self conscious again.'_

 

She let her left leg drift over until her knee touched his. Donnie started and glanced over at her, reddish-brown eyes questioning. She just smiled and lined her leg up against his. Leaning back and letting her head rest on Casey's out-stretched arm, April turned her attention back to the screen. A moment later, Donnie relaxes again, leaving his leg against her's.

 

A minute goes by before Mikey asks suddenly, "Wait, what's a period again?"

 

All five of his elder siblings stiffen. April coughs and answers, "Some other time Mikey, it's not important right now."

 

"M'kay," Mikey concedes, and everyone else breathes an inaudible sigh of relief.  _No one_ wants to give Mikey the run down on what a uterus is tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I, uh, didn't mean for Capriltello to sneak in there, but... there it is anyways. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> It's not gonna get super shippy, that's for a different fic; this is still General. We don't have enough in the fandom tag here, it's all cest or shipping in general.  
> Also! Random fact! The six person family? It's real, but sadly we don't know the Jones' family. But seriously though, I'm the eldest girl and i've got three little sisters and the period thing does happen.  
> It's kinda messy around here when it does...
> 
> I actually had to do some research for this part of the fic, but eh it was worth it. I plan on adopting a pet turtle one day anyways, so i would have needed to at some point.
> 
> Leave a comment if you can!


	4. Teeth talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW for drug use and mention of slight gore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here i am, back again, new chapter for all you fans!  
> Thanks for everyone who's been commenting and kudo-ing, it really helps me be confident!

A little after they reclaim New York, Casey stumbles into Donatello's lab one afternoon smelling like smoke and drugs.

 

Donatello sighed, and raised the goggles he'd been wearing. It'd been hard on all of them, readjusting to being home again; but he knew Casey had been taking it hard especially. The stress of losing his father, difficult as he might be, and his little sister for months was finally catching up to the teen. Having pushed that all the back of his mind, Casey had managed to ignore it till his family was safe again. But now that they were home and had nothing to distract them... Donnie didn't blame Casey for looking for relief, even if it wasn't in a way he personally supported.

 

“Heeeeey Don,” Casey drawled, leaning on top of Donnie's work table with a lazy smile. His eyes were red and Donnie could smell the weed that clung to Casey even better up close.

 

“Hello Jones,” Donnie answered, a little unimpressed with his human friend. “You come to bother me for any particular reason today?”

 

“Nah, just felt like seein' my buddy,” Casey grinned dopily. Donnie snorted, Casey was a very languid and laid back individual on drugs; a stark contrast to his usual attitude. Flicking his goggles down again, Donnie returned to working on his soldering project with a new/old computer chip; some of tech he'd had to abandoned when they'd run had suffered in his absence. Hopefully, Casey would leave if Donnie ignored him long enough.

 

Casey on drugs wasn't someone Donnie enjoyed talking with, too different from the normal one. Not a very good conversation partner either, since insults and banter rolled off him like rain on a window.

 

Donnie kept working, for at least another five minutes, before he snapped his eyes back up at Casey; who had been staring the whole time. Donnie glared at his friend as he put down his soldering iron.

 

“What do you want?” Donnie asked in an annoyed tone.

 

Casey blinked slowly, eyes not leaving Donnie's mouth. Donnie's patience fizzled out. And he snapped, “ _What?_ ”

 

“Duuude...” Casey started leaning closer, eyes still focused exclusively on Donnie's mouth. Donnie didn't move, starting to get a little freaked out. Casey leaned over the table, getting closer and closer. Just inches from Donnie's frozen face, Casey whispered, “You have _teeth_ , why do have teeth man? Your a turtle.”

 

Donnie, his face the picture of un-impressed, pushed Casey away from him. “I swear to god Casey-”

 

“No but seriously,” Casey muffled between Donnie's three fingers. “Turtles don't have teeth right??”

 

“No, not usually,” Donnie admitted, releasing Casey's face with a final shove. “We have human DNA though, so it's a carry over from the combining.”

 

“Still though...” Casey said, leaning his whole front down on the table and propping his elbows to hold his head. He stared at Donnie's clenched teeth with hazy awe. “Hey, they aren't even individual like either. S'like... one big tooth or somethin'.”

 

Donnie closed his lips over his teeth and crossed his arms. “They aren't a singular tooth Jones, I have seven teeth. Or did, now I have six.”

 

“Whaaaa...” Was his answer, and Donnie sighed deeply. Casey probably wouldn't leave until he got an explanation.

 

“Okay, I’ll give it to you simply,” Donnie said, resigned to this idiocy. “We only have teeth because of Master Splinter's human DNA. Turtles are meant to have beaks, not teeth. But because of the mutagen and mixed DNA, we have them anyways. But because we weren't supposed to, the design for our teeth got messed up. Instead of the thirty-two teeth, we have ten and under each. Mikey has the most, ten, since he got back molars plus eye teeth for whatever reason. Raph has the least, only six. The teeth ended up merging into a few large ones, probably a mimic of the beaks we used to have.”

 

“What happened to that one?” Casey reached up and poked at Donnie's missing tooth.

 

Donnie lightly smacked his hand away. “I had my seventh tooth there, an individual like Mikey's eye teeth and molars, but after I lost my baby teeth my adult one grew in incorrectly. I didn't have enough space for it with my other teeth because it grew in crooked. I was in a lot of pain until I pulled it out.”

 

Casey's reddened eyes widened. “Dude, you pulled out your own tooth?! That's kinda metal!”

 

“Feh, hardly. I just wanted my jaw to stop aching all the time,” Donnie shrugged his shoulders. “It hurt like crazy and I got in a ton of trouble, but it was worth it cause my other teeth could spread out then.”

 

“How'd you do it?” Casey asked, tilting his head and looking at the infamous gap.

 

“A pair of pliers I had then, my first pair. Master Splinter confiscated them until after my punishment,” Donnie pointed at a pair of old, but well cared for pair of pliers hanging on the wall of Donnie's tool board. “That's them right there. I have other ones now, but it's kinda important to me. That was my first major medical feat, since I researched as much as I could on dental work before I did it. It started me on other branches of medical techniques and needs, ones we've used a lot over the years.” Donnie turned eyes back to Casey, who was still staring at him. Donnie sighed, it'd be a little while yet before the drugs wore off and he doubted Casey would leave him be to work.

 

“D'you want to go watch some TV with Mikey and me? I'm not going to be able to focus on this right now,” Donnie asked as he unplugged the soldering iron.

 

Casey blinked and then nodded enthusiastically. Donnie ushered him out of the lab and shut off the lights behind them.

 

 

 

(Casey kept sneaking glances at Donnie's teeth the whole time they sat beside each other and watched _Space Heroes_ with Mikey and Leo. Donnie ignored him, and ignored him again later when he was back to his usual self and asking repeatedly for Donnie to open his mouth and let him count the turtle's teeth.

 

Casey tried that again with Raphael later and got punched on the shoulder for it.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am i the only one who thought they should have addressed casey's issues over losing what little family he has? i hope not, cause i think casey cares a ton about his family, mutant and human. The show should have gone into a lot more, considering how devastated i would have been if i'd lost my family like that. And while i don't do drugs myself, i know a lot of my friends do. I don't support it, but i do understand that their lives are difficult enough to make them seek out the ease of being high. I think if casey did drugs, it'd be with friends and very rarely; he's a metal-head adrenaline junkie, but he's got enough sense not to go over board with that stuff.
> 
> (let there be lgbtqa action of any kind in TMNT 2012, like please we have so many good pairings to ship. not even just capriltello, i ship those three other people too. so many good ships and we get nothing but very forced feeling hetero ships.)
> 
> (LEO STOP TRYING TO DATE KARAI IT'S INCEST)
> 
> (*continues to pray for better shipping, or just getting rid of romance in the series as a whole*)
> 
>  
> 
> (also, if that damn extra note still appears below this, i'll let you know it shouldn't be there and only have appeared with the first chapter. i'll get rid of you yet fucker)


	5. Need for Heat part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Living in the sewers was especially hard when the turtles were little.
> 
> (TW for illness)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This goes out to AkaiMurasaki and my partner for inspiring me to write a whole swack of pages about mutants being sick.  
> And away we go! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Years ago, long before they had a dojo or a lair and a warm place to sleep at night, Splinter made do with what he could find.

 

His four sons, still so very young, could not contribute much in the way of help or advice. So on his own, Splinter had attempted to raise four turtle mutants in the New York sewers.

 

In the warm months, it was almost pleasant. It was still difficult yes, but there was plenty of refuse left about by humans topside and many warm nights he and his sons could enjoy together.

Winter was not so.

 

Cold and unforgiving, even to people who had warm houses and apartments to return to. Almost from the end until it began again, Splinter would scavenge items that would keep he and his sons alive for the cold months ahead.

 

Reptiles, Splinter knew even with his limited knowledge, needed sunlight and heat to survive. Though he could not give them sunlight often, he would collect as many blankets and coats as he could and slept curled around his four children.

 

One winter it was not enough to cover them in layers and sleep with them. One winter, they got very sick.

 

They coughed and sniffled constantly, infection having spread among them too quickly for Splinter to even try to stop. A common cold was simple enough to treat usually, but Splinter had limited resources and mutants for sons. Human methods might not work.

 

In a desperate attempt to help them back to health, Splinter used his skills as a ninja to break into a pharmacy one late winter's night. His fingers and toes and tail almost frost bitten, due to his human clothes being unable to cover them properly. He was ashamed that he'd had to stoop to such petty crime, but it was for his sons. They mattered more than his honor and pride.

 

The medicine he retrieved did its job, soothing the wheezing breaths and phlegmy coughs of his sons. Within days, almost all of them improved exponentially.

 

All except Leonardo, his eldest.

 

Leonardo was lethargic, even more than he usually was in the winter, and his cough worsened. Splinter held his ill son closer to his chest than the others during the day, hoping his body heat would chase the cold in Leonardo's chest away.

 

It didn't work, and Leonardo stayed sick.

 

Splinter’s eldest wasn’t able to keep anything stronger than soup down anymore, and threw up at the slightest provocation. Watered down foods and hot teas were the only things that went in and stayed in.

 

Leonardo’s brothers, so worried about their elder brother, remained close to him almost constantly. Their playing was subdued, quiet out of respect for Leo's labored breathing.

 

In the small abandoned maintenance office within an unused subway tunnel, Splinter left his children for a moment to collect his thoughts; trusting Donatello to administer the medicine. He knelt on the cold stone, already felt through his pant legs, and closed his eyes to meditate. He knew, from his teachings by his old master, that there was a technique that could heal almost any wound, cure any sickness.

 

He however had never been able to learn this. It was for masters who'd been to war and back many times, individuals who had met near death so many times they'd lost a portion of themselves to it. Splinter had lost much, but not enough to amount to that.

 

An old ache flared briefly, Tang Shen would have known what to do. She was always so kind to children, and knowledgeable about the world outside the temple grounds. She would have known how help his son back full health. In a rare moment, Splinter cursed himself for being so stubborn about tradition; it had left him with little of the modern world.

 

A creak of the old door opening behind Splinter made his ear twitch. It was quickly followed by little Michelangelo's, _“Otousan?”_

_“Yes, my child?”_ He replied in smooth Japanese.

_“Leo's not waking up,”_ Michelangelo said in a small voice, tight with fear.

Splinter moved quickly as possible, grabbing his smallest in his tail as he flew by. He rushed to the pile of blankets they'd buried Leo inside of near the space heater. Donatello and Raphael were already with their brother, Donatello holding his brother's medicine in hand.

_“We tried shaking him, but he's not waking up,”_ Donatello said, red eyes wide and upset. Splinter ran a comforting hand across his son's scaly head before turning to Leonardo.

His sick son's breathing was stuttered and heavy, harsh wheezing following every breath. Splinter pulled some of the blankets away, removing the snap-and-heat packets he'd stole from the deceased body of another homeless man who'd frozen out in the snow. Leonardo's chest fluttered and even with the loss of heat, he did not stir further.

_“My son, Leonardo, please open your eyes for me,”_ Splinter said in a low tone. When no reaction came, he shook the boy's shoulders. _“It is time to wake up my child, please get up.”_

Leonardo did not respond at all, remaining unconscious. Splinter's chest felt as tight as a vice, a panic building in his throat. A small hand on his arm startled him, and he turned his head to Raphael's acid green eyes.

_“How come he won't wake up?”_ His second asked mouth tight and eyes showing the fear Splinter felt.

Splinter swallowed his rising panic and slipped into the calmness he'd spent years mastering. It was not the time to lose himself; he had three children to comfort and another to save. Splinter drew Raphael into a hug and beckoned his other two as well.

When all three were curled in his lap, Splinter held them close as he talked. _“I have to leave for a while, your brother is very sick and I must take him to get help. Will you three promise to stay in here and wait for us?”_

Three little heads nodded, they would be quiet as they were when a human was nearby and stay right here until their father and brother returned. Splinter pressed his whiskered snout to each of their heads before letting them down.

He picked up his heavy winter coat and began preparing himself for the journey to the surface. Once he was covered head to toe, having wrapped his feet in bandages and ill-fitting shoes, he put Leonardo into a sling under his jacket.

He made sure to remind Donatello and Raphael how to fill the space heater's fuel tank, and to be sparing with it, and told them to eat their canned dinner without him. As he'd closed the door behind him, Splinter felt a pang of regret that he could not bring all of them with him. It gave him grey hairs every time he had to leave them alone.

He adjusted Leonardo's position and started off on a brisk pace.

Later, he'd found the phone booth he sought, and rifled through the worn phone book that sat inside. Pulling out the limited change he had, Splinter dialed the medical help line listed.

_“Hello!”_ The woman on the other end of the line said her English static like in Splinter's ear. _“My name is Carol and you've reached the New York medical help line, how may I be of assistance tonight?”_

“Hello, yes, my son is very sick,” Splinter replied, trying to remember all the correct words in English.

 

_“Can you tell me his symptoms sir?”_

“He has had a cold for the last three weeks, and it has not gotten any better. He had a cough that would not stop and a runny nose. He has been unable to breathe well, and cannot keep food down. I am calling because he is no longer waking up.”

_“Sir, I would advise you to take your son to hospital. If he is not responding anymore-”_

“I cannot afford a hospital!” Splinter snapped, using the very true but not entirely so excuse. He leaned his head against the cold glass of the booth, feeling the leaden weight of his son in his arms. “Please, tell me how I can heal my son without the help of a doctor.”

_“I-Alright,”_ Carol replied. Clicking in the background of the call, she looked up illnesses that contained the symptoms Leonardo suffered. _“From your description, your son may have Pneumonia. Maybe Bronchitis.”_

Splinter shut his eyes and tried to control the wave of trepidation. He knew those were both very serious conditions.

_“Have you been to a doctor to have him examined?”_

“No, we cannot afford that either,” Splinter replied, lamenting his mutation as well as his son's.

_“Then we'll have to guess here. Have you been keeping him warm and hydrated?”_

“Yes, as much as I can.”

_“Have you kept his upper body raised while he slept?”_

“No, how would that have helped?”

_“Chest infections cause fluid in the lungs and esophagus. Keeping your son on an angle will keep it from pooling and help him breathe better.”_

Splinter noted that Leonardo's breathing had eased since he'd started holding him on an upright angle. He would keep his son on an angle from now on. “Anything else?”

_“Ideally, you'd want antibiotics to treat the infection; but you need a prescription. If you can't get one from the doctor, then you'll have to make do with keeping him warm and hydrated. Herbal teas and vitamins will keep his stamina up, and help the cough. Will you have access to these things?”_

Splinter thought of the pharmacy he would be visiting again. “Yes, I will.”

 

 _“Good. Try humidifying the air of his room when the cough gets worse again, it'll make it easier to stop,”_ More typing in the background of the call, before Carol spoke again. _“Are you sure you can't see a doctor? There're walk in clinics and shelters who would help.”_

Splinter looked down at his chest, Leonardo's face barely visible under the layers. Green and alien, otherworldly in every way; he knew his child to perfect as he was, but no one else would. His heart heavy, he replied. “No, I am afraid we cannot see a doctor.”

 

 _“I'm sorry to hear that, I really am,”_ Carol said, her voice full of concern. _“Do you need anything else?”_

“No, thank you very much Carol. I am indebted to you,” Splinter said, grave and thankful.

_“Before you go, I didn't catch the names of you or your son.”_

Splinter hesitated; old instincts saying to remain secret, but he pushed them away. There was no one left to hide from any more than he already was. “My name is Yoshi, and my son Leonardo. Thank you again.”

_“Your welcome, Yoshi,”_ Carol said. Splinter said goodbye to her and hung up.

Splinter broke into a university library through a window that night, retrieving a medical text book and reading it near the warm vents from the laundry rooms outside the student's dorms. Listed beside the Pneumonia and Bronchitis sections were the anti-biotics needed to treat the sicknesses.

With the night waning, Splinter visited the pharmacy he'd been to before. The owners had thought to add a camera this time, which was dispatched easily enough with his strong grip. No doubt the police would have shown up sooner had there not been such bad weather. Roads were near impassable, which was good for Splinter.

Counting minutes off to himself, Splinter had dug through the back of the pharmacy, trying to match the pills to the names in the book. After ten very tense minutes of comparing repeatedly, Splinter found the correct pills.

Stopping only to grab a box of herbal tea mix and more snap-and-heat pocket warmers, Splinter fled the pharmacy just as police vehicles sounded nearby. He escaped by forgoing his shoes and climbing the brick building; using all four limbs plus his fifth to hold his shoes.

That night, he'd administered the medicine according to the book and brewed tea to go with it; letting the steam of the electric kettle surround Leonardo's sleeping pile. As the liquid had warmed Leonardo's stomach, he'd woken up briefly. He was bleary and only semi-conscious, but it had made Splinter nearly weep with relief. There was still hope.

Splinter managed to coax Leonardo in swallowing the pills with his tea, and allowed him to sleep again. It was a tense night; Splinter didn't close his eyes once. While the other three had eventually slept, they didn't leave the tight circle they'd created around Leonardo even once.

The following days were rough. Splinter did not leave the safety of their shelter once, he couldn't shake the feeling that the moment he left his child's side would the moment his small plastron stopped moving.

Eventually, the stolen medicine worked its magic, and Leonardo began to improve. He remained conscious for longer and longer periods of time, growing stronger each time. His cough stopped shaking his whole frame every time, and dropped off into something manageable. While they slept it would worsen again, but having Leonardo propped upwards on a pile of folded clothes helped him sleep. The fluid left the turtle's little lungs finally, and his son could breathe almost freely again.

During the weeks of Leonardo’s' recovery, Donatello devoured the medical text book Splinter had brought home. At random moments while checking up on Leonardo's condition, the third eldest would pipe up a fact about the illness; reminding Splinter to check for the sound of phlegm in Leonardo's chest and the rate he breathed.

Splinter made a note to bring more text books for his second youngest, whose mind was growing quicker by the day. Not long off, Splinter could see his son out pacing his knowledge easily.

Michelangelo helped where ever he could with food preparation and laundering the bedding, switching between each member of his family almost hourly; trying to keep moral up. Raphael sorely needed the distraction of his annoying brother; at times Splinter had to physically pull the child from the bedside of Leonardo. Raphael eyes were always watchful of his brother's breathing, only ceasing his watching when Leonardo was well enough again to snap at him for babying him in play. The fight that ensued from that was like a sigh of relief, things finally starting their usual rhythm once more.

Leonardo remained tired and weak for the rest of winter though, only fully recovering when spring began bleeding into summer and Splinter could let them sun themselves under a sewer grate.

Winters following, as they found a place to settle down in and change into a home, the worry that Leonardo could relapse did not cease until Donatello restored heat lamps found in the trash.

Far into the future, with his sons mostly grown and on their way to becoming masters in their own right, Splinter would remember the first big scare they experienced with sickness. He kept a close eye on his sons' health especially in the winter, always wary of a cough becoming something worse. They were unusual beings in this world; unique in a way no one else would be. They couldn't afford to become ill, no one would treat them if worst came to worst.

Splinter counted his blessings that he'd been right about Donatello's intellect, his third eldest saving all of their lives repeatedly with his medical and engineering knowledge as they grew older.

He still watched their breathing carefully each time the weather grew cold though; as much as he trusted his son old fears never went away, not those kind.

(Years after Splinter made that call of distress, a woman named Carol Lacabane heard rumors of vigilantes in her neighborhood. And one night, when she sat awake in her kitchen counting her bills for her children's education, she heard the scuffle of a gang in the alley below her apartment.

Switching off the few lights left on in her home, Carol lifted curtains away from the open window and snuck a look out into the warm summer air. Below, a fight between the Purple Dragons and four quick, green blurs raged. She stayed very still as she listened intently, hand around her phone and fingers ready to dial the police if needed.

The fight only lasted seconds longer, the four green people dispatching each of the gang members with minimal effort. Whoops of joy and crows of victory floated up to Carol's window.

“Nice move with that last guy Leo!” One in an orange mask complimented another, slapping the blue masked individual across his shell(?).

“Just testing it out, Master Splinter showed us it yesterday remember?” The blue masked person replied, apparently named Leo.

“Feh, teacher's pet,” The red banded turtle, (or Carol thought they were turtles at least), said with clear disgust.

“You, are jealous I got it right on the first try, Raph,” Leo said as he sheathed the two swords he carried.

“Am not, _Lamenardo_ ,” Raph replied, shoving his fork like weapons into his belt.

“We still have to meet Casey and April guys, and it's already ten,” The purple individual said, clearly trying to finish this conversation; his long staff already slung across his back (shell?) again. “Can we please leave already?”

“Donnie's right, hup-to guys,” Leo said, as he jumped and clambered up the staircase of the opposing apartment complex from Carol's.

“You’re the one who started that,” Raph grumbled loudly as he followed. With that, the four giant, bipedal turtles disappeared over the roof of the next building. Carol walked away from the window and sat down at her messy dining table.

Later, after a couple glasses of the cheap brandy Carol kept, she remembered vaguely a conversation long ago with a man asking for help for a son he couldn't take to see a doctor.

_'Leonardo... Leo... Lamenardo...'_ Carol turned the names over in her head, and scoffed quietly. She'd seen a lot of strange things over the years in her neighborhood, heard some wild things over the phone at work, but this might take the cake.

An unusual name, a phone call late at night in the middle of winter, and four vigilantes who looked like aliens. Carol drained her glass and headed for bed. There were many strange things in this world, but they weren't her business.

Besides, if four alien turtles felt like keeping her neighborhood safe from thug activity and asking nothing in return, who was she to object?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. I am not certified in anything beyond first aid, please forgive any grievous errors in my medical knowledge. I tried. And by tried I mean I did a minimal amount of quick research and BS'd the rest. *jazz hands*
> 
> You cannot tell me that Splinter never taught his kids how to speak his native language okay, 'cause bilingual turtles are and will always be my headcanon. Though I think Donnie might learn to speak Binary code verbally one day, so he'd be multilingual.
> 
> Another headcanon, Splinter probably did the damn best he could with his limited resources for his kids; but ultimately Donatello probably (definitely) is responsible for the quality of living they have now in the show. (Speaking of, no one in the recent seasons have given much thought to how. damn. much. Donnie works. Please give this nerd some credit, he deserves it more than anyone.)
> 
> You also cannot tell me that no one in that neighborhood heard those rebel-rousers screaming through the night or saw them at some point. Weird shit happens when you live in crappy neighborhoods, not to mention there are more pressing things like financial problems, so after a point you don't give a damn so long as it doesn't affect you.  
> I would know, there's this one guy that appears on and off during the summer around here who's dressed head to toe in pioneer leathers; complete with raccoon hat, moccasins, and arm fringes. I still to this day have no idea why he does this only in the summer or where he lives, but frankly I don't care.
> 
> Thanks for stopping by to read this!
> 
>  
> 
> (and if anyone can tell me how to get that extra note to piss off, I'd be ever so grateful thanks)


	6. Hearing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some much needed Mikey and April interaction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> spoilers for the farm house arc

“Hey Mikey!” April greeted cheerfully as she entered the lair, enjoying her Monday off from school; it was a long weekend. “How're you doing today?”

Mikey, the only turtle in the room, makes no acknowledgement of her. April frowns, and calls again, this time raising her voice. “Hey Mikey!”

Still nothing, and April sucked in a huge breath, and yelled, “MICHELANGELO!”

Mikey jumped and fell sideways on his bean bag with a small yelp. “What?! It wasn't me!!”

“It's just me, doofus,” April said, cocking her hip and crossing her arms. “I said hello is all. Didn't you hear me?”

“Uuuuhh...” Mikey twists himself around so he was facing April and lying on his stomach. “No? Sorry April, didn't hear ya.”

“I half shouted the second one, jeeze,” April said as she dropped her bag onto the couch; inside were snacks for later. There'd been pocky on sale at her school's convenience store, and she thought the guys might like some. She dragged another bean bag over to where Mikey's was and flopped down in it. “Not even Casey with his head phones on would've missed me calling. You’re not even watching the TV that loud today.”

“Ha ha, sorry,” Mikey said, looking apologetic. “When I don't focus on it, I can't hear super good. Just chuck something at me next time like Raph does, that'll get me to notice. Just don't aim for the head.” He added the last part with a giggle.

April raised her eyebrow. Did this sound like she thought it did? “Hey Mikey, are you... hearing impaired?”

“Mmmm'not really?” Mikey tapped the area beneath his mask where his ears would've been. “I'm mostly turtle right? So I got better hearing under water 'stead of land. All of us do,” He paused, then added, “Except of course, Master Splinter. I’m pretty sure he hears everything.”

“Is that why you’re all so loud?” April asked, recalling just how rowdy the boys got sometimes.

“Eh, partially. We're mostly just like that, ha ha,” Mikey grinned and shrugged. “Leo and Don have better hearing out of water than I do, better than Raph's too. I have the worst hearing, and Donnie's got the best; which is probably good 'cause of his experiments and science junk. There'd be a lot more explosions around here if he missed the timers on his equipment doo-hickies.”

Mikey placed his hands behind his head and leaned back, the bean bag making crunching sounds as he moved. “Since we're ninja's, Sensei trained us an' stuff so we could hear better, but it doesn't always work. I think at least half the time we get caught doing anything is 'cause we're being too loud. Lack of volume control can really mess up a mission sometimes.”

April hummed in agreement, thinking of all the times (or at least the ones she'd been there for) where the four of them got caught because of their raised voices. She also recalled how lately, her father had been telling her she didn't need to talk so loudly and that he could hear her just fine. She'd unconsciously adjusted her volume to match the level the guys needed to be able to hear her. Casey was always loud, so it wasn't much of a change for him.

“Couldn't Donnie make some device to amplify your hearing?” April wondered aloud. “It might make it easier on missions.”

“You know, Leo asked the same thing one time,” Mikey replied. “Donnie said he could, but he wasn't sure if our ear drums could take it. Turtles, remember? We might accidentally deafen ourselves or something. Master Splinter also said it'd be a bad idea to get reliant on tech to hear for us; since it could short out in a fight.”

“Good point,” April agreed. “And I guess if anyone caught on, they might target it purposely. Stockman might hack the program and turn it up so loud you go deaf. Or, he could mess with what you were hearing; voices and sounds around you. That's how I’d do it, could really screw up your team coordination.” April turned her head and looked at Mikey, who was looking a little concerned. “What?”

“Dude, sometimes your scary smart,” He narrowed his eyes and leaned away from her a bit. “You’re not gonna go all Anakin Skywalker on us, are you?”

“What? No!” April smacked Mikey on the arm. “The dark side has no calling for me!” She put a hand over her heart, faking insult. “How could you say that to me, after all we've been through?”

Mikey laughed and jumped up from his bean bag, starting to run from her. “Donnie! Leo! Raph! Help, April's gonna turn Darth Vader on us!”

“You little shit!” April laughed, and gave chase. “You’re giving away my plan!”

 

 

 

 

(Months later, when New York is under the Kraang's control and they're hiding in the farm house; they find a space ship in the basement and terrifying information about April's family.

April sits on the porch swing with her knees curled to her chest, thinking about the thing she'd thought was her mother; and what her abilities might now mean. Inside's noise of cleaning and usual in-fighting floods out into the night air as Mikey comes out the door with two cups of cocoa in hand.

He sits down with her and offers the warm mug, which she takes gratefully as she uncurls from her tight ball. They sit in silence, letting the swing move slightly in a gentle rock. For all his noise and rambunctious behavior, Mikey knows when quiet is needed. Especially when it comes to his family.

Finally, after half her drink is gone, April speaks in a timid voice. “D'you think I might really be Anakin Skywalker? That I could end up Darth Vader?”

Mikey considers for a moment; April's powers are growing all the time. She gets moments where she'll say the same thing someone else was about to, or be able to call the exact bluff of one of the boys during cards. Signs of psychic ability gets more prominent every time she does. He sips his drink, then answers. “Nah, not even a little. Your more like Luke, you've got this big dark legacy to stand up to; but you'll pull through in the end and defeat the dark side.” He frowns for a moment. “Wait, that metaphor doesn't really work since your dad isn't Darth Vader...”

April laughs into the last of her drink, feeling a bit lighter. It's scary; her powers, her family's history, the future... but she's got her family to back her through it. They'll figure it out just fine.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know what the series needs? More one on one interaction between the turts and their humans. And Mikey deserves more than "he's-the-annoying-little-brother" trope moments, especially since he's the most empathetic out of the whole cast. Splinter in multiple iterations says that Mikey's got the most potential for literally anything, but no one ever goes into it?? I wanna write a thing one day where Mikey gets to be bad-ass, like he ought to be allowed to be in canon.
> 
> Another thing, where is my continuity about April? She finds out her whole family has been lab rats for generations and then nothing? No moments of self doubt? Not an inkling that a 16-17 yr old girl might be struggling with that? Worse yet, when they're in space, they make a foreshadowing of over-powered corrupt April and then do shit with it? That's where my idea to parallel her with Anakin came from, even if that metaphor isn't super solid. May she and Mikey be allowed to be bad-asses sooner than later in the show, they've both been lacking in development lately.
> 
> (leo sit your ass down, you've made nothing but bad decisions for half a season now. stop making things worse.)
> 
> If you want more quality complaints about the turtles and co's canon selves and actions, and about the writing of the show, go to Hotmilkytea on tumblr. They aren't me, much as i wish, but their fics and posts about the series really inspire me and just all around are great.
> 
> The me who is actually me, does have a tumblr, but it's not very quality. = v =  
> onthespectrumwriting is my writing blog, and if you feel like it, drop by and say hi!


	7. Eyes part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (~￣▽￣)~ Roof safety is important, don't attempt this at home kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I miss the simplicity of season one.  
> We had good writing then.  
> C'est la vie

“Raph, man, the fuck's up with your eyes??” Casey asked, right in Raph's face.

 

“Fuck off, Jones,” Raph replied eloquently, shoving the human away. It was too early in the evening for this kinda shit. Raphael just wanted to finish patrol and go back home; his human partner was an unwelcome surprise that evening. It was supposed to be him and Leo, but no; Splinter had _leaderly things_ to talk about with his elder brother.

 

“No, no, seriously,” Casey said, catching his balance before he toppled off the roof they'd paused atop. “Your _eyes_ , why're they green? S'like a glow stick green.”

 

“Casey, you've been hanging around us for at least a month now, and you're _just_ bringing this up?” Raph grouched, exasperated already.

 

“It's not like I stare at your eyes every time we meet up-!”

 

“-Yeah, just April and Don's-”

 

“-So I’m not gonna know what your eye color is!” Casey punched Raph on the shoulder for his comment. “Besides! You’re always doing that white-eye thing when I’m around!”

 

“That's cause you only hang around when we're going out for a fight.”

 

“Exactly!” Casey threw his hands up in exclamation. “So. Explain. What's with your eyes! And Donnie's too, they're like, reddish-brown then red then brown then reddish-brown again! They change color every time he's under a different light!”

 

“Can't we just keep patrolling?”

 

“Explain!!”

 

“Quit shouting!” Raph grabbed Casey's neck and pulled him into a headlock, dislodging his hockey mask so it covered only the top of Casey's face. “We're supposed to be ninjas!”

 

Casey blew a very mature raspberry as he wriggled in Raph's grip. “ _You’re_ supposed to be the ninja, _I'm_ a vigilante of the night. I’m supposed to attract attention, so I can kick who ever tries to mess with me into next week!”

 

“If you _shut up_ I’ll tell you, okay?” Raph tightened his hold on Casey, holding fast as he wriggled harder.

 

“Fine! Just let go asshole, your pits reek!” Casey gagged. Raph mussed his friend's hair before shoving him away. Casey pretended to throw up as he tugged his mask off, his face-paint smeared from Raph's noogie/headlock.

 

“So it's something like this, okay?” Raph pointed at his left eye, widening it to show his entire iris. “My eyes and Donnie's are secondary mutations. Something Leo and Mikey didn't get because of dumb luck. Donnie theorized that we might have had weak eye-sight before the mutagen or something, and the mutation decided to fix them. Anyway, now I can see really far distances, Donnie can see colors not on the human-sight-spectrum-whatever, and we both see better at night than Leo and Mikey combined. Good enough explanation?”

 

“Uh, you can see at night? Seriously? Like in pitch dark and stuff?”

 

Raph rolled his eyes. “Not in _pitch dark_ , idiot. Everything needs at least a little bit of light to see; I just don't need as much. And it's pitch _black_ , not _dark_.”

 

“Don't lecture me on English, you only ever read comic books!” Casey exclaimed.

 

“I don't read _just comic books_ , that's Mikey's thing,” Raph crossed his arms and glared. “I read plenty of other stuff.”

 

“Yeah, like what?”

 

“Uh,” Raph thought about the pile of well-worn and very well hidden fantasy/sci-fi romance novellas underneath his bed. The ones he read secretly under the covers with a wimpy flash-light when people thought he was sleeping. “None of your damn business. Just know I read them.”

 

“Your lying,” Casey insisted, poking his friend in the plastron.

 

“Fuck off,” Raph poked Casey back harder. “Do you have any more dumb-ass questions or can we get going?”

 

“Sure, whatever,” Casey slung his mask back on, and hiked his bag on his back into its original position prior the headlock. He followed Raph as they both leaped across the gap between the buildings. (A smaller gap that Raph would take usually, since he would've taken a higher path on the roofs any other night; but he didn't want to watch his friend fall and crack his idiot skull on the streets below.)

 

After another two leaps across roof tops, Casey raised his voice to ask a question. “What sorta colors can Don see exactly? Like smurple or something?”

 

“Why would I know, I can't fucking see them,” Raph replied as he flipped over a skylight. “Ask him yourself. He named a whole bunch one time and made a chart of them. Course, it all looks like smears of brown or green to the rest of us.”

 

“Is that what that poster thing in his lab is? The one by the fridge?” Casey jumped over the skylight, making a note to learn how to front flip with his gear on another time. “I thought that was a chart of different shits you find in the sewer.”

 

“Okay, that was gross even by your standards Casey.”

 

“There wasn't a title on it! I just assumed since it was mostly brown colors-”

 

“Oh my god stop talking about shit and my brother,” Raph groaned. “I just want to finish this patrol and go home already.”

 

“Fine, be that way!” Casey huffed and started running for the next roof, grumbling as Raph jumped ahead of him again. “Some wingman you are...”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Later that night, when Casey had gone home to sleep, Raph sat in Donnie's lab telling him what the human had been asking about.

 

“Why on earth would I make a chart to showcase human excrement?” Donnie questioned dryly.

 

Raph shrugged and bit into the apple he'd grabbed from the kitchen; enjoying the rare top-side treat. “Heck if I know, you're the genius here.”

 

“Yes, and Casey is the idiot,” Donnie said as he pushed down on the toaster lever, the one he was fixing for the sixth time; Leo had thought he might make breakfast for Master Splinter and it had not gone well for the toaster. The heating coils inside sputtered weakly, then gave up. Donnie sighed, released the lever, and picked up his screw driver again.

 

Raph stuck the rest of his apple into his mouth, crushing the core between his teeth. He wondered when Casey would figure out how to properly flirt in a way that didn't involve trying to start a fight or pickup lines that made even Mikey grimace. Or when Donatello would wake up and smell the pungent amounts of Axe body spray Casey applied every time he came over. Or when April would finally just put both of the boys out of their misery.

 

Raph dislodged a seed from between his two back teeth with his tongue and figured none of those things would happen any time soon.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my rather large knowledge accumulation about the animals of earth, animals only have brightly colored eyes for three reasons: they're poison, it's a part of a display, or something went wrong. In all likelihood, if Donnie had red eyes before being mutated, chances are he'd have been blind. |˚–˚|  
> (which woulda been really bad, since they probably wouldn't have made it this far without him)
> 
> If anyone's interested in another headcanon of mine, I sometimes headcanon 2k12 Raph to be an AroAce; it just really fit him back before they shoved a very poorly written romance between him and Y'Gythgba. I headcanon him that like 70% of the time, unless I'm leaning towards a pairing involving him that day.  
> Donnie, April, and Casey on the other hand... any sort of pairings with those collective three don't work well enough unless they're all together. They just balance each out perfectly. (in my opinion) (i should write something for sexuality hc's, i have a lot...)
> 
> I'm considering wrapping this fic up with the next chapter, unless anyone else has some anatomy HC prompts! Leave a comment of a headcanon you have that I haven't mentioned yet, and I'll figure if I can write it in. I'll give ya'll four-five days or something.
> 
> (and if someone leaves a HC that's too good to resist somewhere in the future, i'll drop by and add another chapter or smth.)
> 
> Kudos to you all, have a nice night/day! >‿‿◕


	8. Shells

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Turtles... probably shouldn't bend like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wowie it's been a awhile!  
> Real sorry about the wait folks, I got possessed by the outer gods and forced to spend the whole week working a one shot!  
> After your done here, reading the much awaited and asked for shell chapter, go check out my new TMNT fic! It should be listed on my profile.  
> Now, away we go!

April walked in on turtles doing morning katas together, and all she could think was that turtles _really_ shouldn't be able to bend like that.

 

She'd only just met them, not more than a few days ago. She hadn't spent much time with the four outside of fighting/running for their lives.

 

She didn't have time to notice the detail that their shells twist and bend in a very non-turtle way. Trying to stay alive usually over rules that.

 

“Uh, hi April,” Donnie said, straightening out of a stance. “Your here early today.”

 

April dragged her eyes away from Mikey, who might just be made of taffy, and focused on Donatello. “Just dropped by to ask if you had any news on my dad.”

 

“No, I’m sorry,” He said, looking genuinely apologetic. “We're doing our best; I swear we'll find him soon.”

 

“Good to hear,” She replied, attention drifting back to Raphael's current pose; something close to what Mikey's was, but less bendy.

 

Raphael glared at her, acid green eyes snapping at her along with his voice. “ _What_?”

 

April jumped a little, her face heating up. “Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to stare. It's just... I’ve never seen a turtle bend like that.”

 

“We're part human, so not completely turtle,” Leonardo said as he came out of a kata, giving up on his practice for now. “We bend more because our shells are softer. It's, uh, what was it again Donnie?”

 

“Our shells are closer to cartilage in humans than bone in turtles, which makes it a lot more flexible,” Donatello explained. He walked over to Michelangelo and pointed at his brother's shell as Mikey flexed into a stretch to touch his toes. “See? My theory is that the outer area is shell, but further in is much softer; letting us bend more. We have human vertebrae, and there for the shells had to become accustomed to that sort of flexibility. So it looks like a shell, and acts like a shell, but it's actually plates on top of cartilage and our spines. Rapid evolution really is amazing, isn't it?”

 

“Pretty sweet, right?” Mikey said as he rolled into a somersault from the toes touching. He landed back on his feet with a soft _hup!_ “It'd be hella hard to do ninjutsu if we couldn't be all bendy and stuff. Makes me super glad Sensei was around to lend us some D. N. A.”

 

“I hate to imagine what would have happened without Sensei's DNA to mix with ours,” Leonardo said thoughtfully. “If not with his human DNA, then it could have been something else. It might have even been the rat he was mixed with!”

 

Raphael shuddered. “Thanks for the image Leo, turtles mixed with rats. _Great_ , that'll be in my head all day now!”

 

“I don't know bro, having a super long tail mighta been cool-”

 

“Don't be stupid Mikey, we coulda been even bigger freaks with _rat_ DNA in us.”

 

“That's not a very nice thing to say, Raph, considering Master Splinter-”

 

“Stuff it Leo, you know I didn't mean it like that-”

 

“-and I coulda used it to grab the cookies above the fridge when we were small still-”

 

“-you know how to use manners and we expect them of you; and I’m the leader so-”

 

“-so you can shove it up your shell for all I care-”

 

“Any more questions?” Donatello asked politely, ignoring the growing chaos behind him; his brothers resorting to fists.

 

April raised her hands and shook her head. She'd had enough mutant weirdness for now. “I'll call you later, after school's done.”

 

She made a quick retreat as she saw Master Splinter coming into the dojo with a stern look on his long face. Who knew school would one day look like a respite from her social life?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Casey has a very different reaction later on, which ends in him goading Raph into versing Mikey in a bending contest.

 

Raph puts a plate out of place and Mikey wins hands down. Raph retaliates by putting a few things out of place in Casey and Mikey before anyone can stop him.

 

They are all banned from contests of any kind for the rest of the week, and put to work cleaning up the mess they've made in the process of said contest.

 

Donatello is still unsure how to get the wet cheetos off the ceiling. Or how they got up there in the first place.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I imagine it was a real adjustment for April when she had the turtles come into her life. A real world shaker, on top of all the other shit that happened to her.
> 
> Fun fact! Because I never had close friends my age until I was much older, I spent a ton of time watching nature documentaries and reading non-fiction books! Lots of creatures on earth have plates for a defense mechanism, so maybe the turts got a throw back gene for their shells to end up bendy!
> 
> Idk actually, this is all fictional.
> 
> Ah well, I try. 
> 
> Please take a look at my new fic, Singular Child, I worked pretty hard at it! Even if you don't like it much, i'd appreciate the critique in the comments.
> 
> Same for this fic! Comments give me life!!
> 
> Thanks for being patient everyone, your all real swell.


	9. Height

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a definite difference between each brother in terms of body type.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To who ever suggested this, I know I said it wouldn't fit in, but here it is. I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I wrote it down despite my original refusal. Thanks for suggesting it, this was made possible by you!

A throw away comment from Casey about how each of the turtle brothers are so different looking made Donatello curious; why is it that there’s such a difference in each body type of his siblings?

Corralling his siblings to take blood samples was like herding deaf cats; he couldn’t keep them still for more than a moment each. Mikey practically vibrates the whole time, whining that he’s gonna miss _Crognard the Barbarian_ ; he shot out of the lab as soon as Donnie had removed the needle completely. Raph almost pulls the needle out of his arm not once, not twice, but three times; accidentally snapping the thin metal the second time. He owes Donnie big time for that, medical equipment that’s sterile is insanely hard to come by for them. Leo eyes him the whole time he’s taking the blood, barely blinking the entire process; Donnie pretends he doesn’t notice the relieved slump Leo has once it’s over.

Donnie extracted the DNA sequences by breaking down the blood’s structure, separating the components so he could view them individually. It’s a short process, even with four different samples to put through. When it’s done, he put each sample onto a clearly labelled slide; then brought them one by one under the scope.

His suspicions are confirmed when only portions of their DNA line up. A large section of each of their genetics differs completely from the others; the only common connection is the turtle DNA and the portion Donnie guesses is Sensei’s.

Essentially, while they’re all still related, they’re closer to being step siblings. Same base, that being Splinter’s human genetics and their turtle DNA, but they had others contribute to their genetic makeup. Most likely it was individual humans who handled them before splinter bought them, leaving skin cells and oils to mix with the mutagen.

So that’s probably why he’s so freakishly tall compared to his brothers, Leo and Raph barely clear his shoulders and Mikey still has to tip toe to get even that far. Raph’s sheer muscle mass is higher than anyone else’s, especially compared to Leo who is average in height and weight. Mikey’s stubbornly holding onto baby fat around his face, despite them being closer to adulthood than childhood now.

Donatello rubbed his eyes tiredly. He was unsure of what to do with this information. Team dynamics hinged heavily on the brother relationship they all have, and even that can get tenuous at times. Donnie hadn’t told his brothers why he’d needed the blood samples, just told them _“For science”_ and they’d accepted it to avoid a long winded explanation; worked every time.

If he told them that they weren’t fully related, it might lead to all sorts of problems. The line _“You’re not my real family!”_ is a lot less funny now. Best case scenario, no one gives a damn. But even if that was the first reaction, it could grow into something malignant.

Blaming their petty fights on not being fully related, building on that until it erupted into a rift between two or more of them. Little ticks they can’t help being dismissed because of different parentage. Exclusion of the brothers with DNA furthest from the others, infighting over who has most claim to the Hamato name, the list goes on.

Donnie packed his equipment away, going over increasingly dark results of telling his brothers his findings. It always started small, but even the littlest interactions could drastically change the future. Everything is connected; and shaking the connections could wreck it beyond repair.

Donnie took his carefully written notes with him to a small locked safe in the corner of his lab. Clicking the dial until it opened, he put the small black note book inside on the shelf, right beside its other two siblings. The safe originally was a gift from his father to preserve his work in case something happened to the lair, but now he uses it to store information he can’t let anyone ever see.

Their physical weaknesses, listed allergies they've found through trial and error, toxic substances they can’t ever ingest, maps of their tunnels, medical details, psychological issues and hang ups, etc. Donatello kept precise notes on everything, just in case his memory failed him in a critical moment in the future, and does recaps on everything once a week. It’s a ritual that helps make him feel like he’s got a plan for everything.

The other reason he has the notes is in the event something happens to him, his family would need to have the cheat sheets to get by. He’d told Mikey that if he ever doesn’t make it back from a mission, he’s to go and get the poster of the periodic table from his room; the highlighted squares would tell the combination.

His little brother may be a goof ball, but Donnie knows he’d come through if came worst came to worst. Raph and Leo would sit on this knowledge and let it poison them; but Mikey has faith in Donnie to never need him to fulfill that particular request. Donnie doesn’t plan on ever making him.

Donnie closed the safe, locking the dangerous note books away from prying eyes. He won’t tell his family his results unless he absolutely has to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The turtles are essentially a unit of trained warriors, and from what i've read those depend on being able to trust no matter what. In canon, the kids are fairly shallow sometimes, and fight about really dumb things. Finding out they aren't even fully related could definitely drive a wedge between them, especially with all the unresolved tensions in canon right now. (looking at the donnie and leo rift that was never addressed after it happened)
> 
> Donatello seems like the type to plan and plan and plan for every scenario he can think of, what with the amount of work he puts into keeping his brothers and father safe. His skills and intellect are what save them at the end of the day, 9/10, even if he's not getting any appreciation in show. (give donnie credit 2k16)
> 
> You ever been in a pet store? People get their grubby fingers on literally every animal they can. And since even the smallest addition to the mutagen can shift the entire effect, some microscopic cell residue wouldn't surprise me.
> 
> Thanks for stopping by for a read, and don't forget to check out my other fics, Singular Child now has a playlist to go with it!


	10. Lungs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hold your breath!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I'm back.  
> Sorry for the wait, I'm working on another very long fanfic for the TMNT fandom, be sure to look for it when I post it!

“Cannonball!!” Mikey yelled, jumping down from the ceiling and landing in the pool of the lair. A huge splash soaked the surrounding area of it, getting onto the couch too. April rolled her eyes and was glad she’d chosen to sit on the _other_ side of the couch. Mikey was swimming alone for the moment, Raph had been called away to help Donnie test a machine in the lab. April was pretty sure the genius turtle had said something about testing the durability of something or other; of it couldn’t be broken by Raph’s enhanced strength, then little would be able to.

April clicked open another browsing tab, searching for any new sightings of the Kraang in New York. Activity had spiked lately, and they hadn’t figured out why yet. Probably another plan in the process of being completed, they’d need to stop it before it managed to get off the ground.

She hummed quietly as she read through the latest postings about the Kraang, most weren’t worth anything; but a couple from reliable users had seen the Kraang multiple times in a neighborhood east from the lair by about ten miles; an easy place to check out later in the evening.

April smiled to herself as she saved screen shots of the posts, saving them to the hard drive. The quiet of the lair made the small progress all the sweeter, since it was most often to rambunctiously noisy.

She paused; the lair was quiet and had been quiet for at least five minutes now. And she was in the same room as the loudest of the four brothers. April put her computer to the side and stood up; Mikey hadn’t surfaced from his dive yet.

She walked at an increasingly quick pace, dread forming in her chest. She hopped up and over the soaked couch and knelt at the edge of the pool. Mikey’s green form was at the bottom of the pool. He wasn’t moving.

April scrambled to remember what you were supposed to do in this situation. Mikey might’ve hit his head during that fall, and he’d been without air for at least six minutes now. How long until the brain started shutting down without oxygen again? _Wait, no, focus on the fact that he’s not moving and STILL UNDER THE WATER-_

“Help, I NEED HELP!” April yelled, hoping one of the brothers would hurry to find out her distress. She stood up and jumped feet first into the pool, Mikey couldn’t wait anymore for help; the other three would be here soon to help her out. April thanked her father for making her take swimming lessons up to level ten as she swam down to the bottom of the water body.

Mikey was floating just above the tiles, eyes closed and looking peaceful. April swam closer, intent on grabbing him by the shoulders and hauling him up. But when April’s fingers brushed against Mikey’s scales, his eyes shot open as he grabbed her hand. April shrieked and choked as she inhaled water. Mikey grabbed her around the waist and pulled them both back to the surface.

April desperately grabbed the edge of the walls and started hacking up water. Her hair stuck in her eyes and her clothes clung uncomfortably to her body. She felt like she was a cat someone had dumped in the bath tub.

“April! Why’d you jump in like that?!” Mikey asked, treading water beside her.

“Because-“ She coughed, feeling algae in her mouth. Gross! “Because I thought you were drowning!”

Mikey looked at her like she was the weird one. “Bro, I was barely down there for like ten minutes!”

“People can’t hold their breath for that long!” April shouted, feeling embarrassed and frustrated.

“Yeah, but I’m not people; I’m a turtle,” Mikey swam over to the edge and pulled himself out. He turned back around and reached out an arm to pull April out as well. “Thanks for the thought, but I was fine. All of us can hold our breaths for a crazy long time!”

“Would’ve been nice if someone had told _me_ that,” April groused, accepting Mikey’s hand and climbing out onto dry land. She sat on the floor and mourned her clothes, which were stuck her like glue now. “How long can you hold your breath anyways? You were down there a while.”

“Psh, that was nothing. Longest record I’ve got is three hours and twenty six minutes!” Mikey said proudly, April opening her mouth once and then shutting it. He giggled, sitting down beside her. “Donnie thinks we were box turtles before the mutation stuff, and they can hold their breath up to two hours! We’re a lot bigger, and got a lot more lung room because of that, so we can go for hours without coming back up! I didn’t come back up after my sweet dive ‘cause I was waiting for Raph by the way, sorry I scared you.”

April sighed and pushed her wet bangs out of her face. “It’s fine, I was just worried is all.”

“What the heck happened here?” Leo asked, coming out of the dojo.

“Impromptu water rescue gone wrong,” April said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Think you could get me a towel or something? And some new clothes? Anything will do.”

“What’s happening, I left you alone for like a minute Mikey-“ Raph stopped and looked at the two damp individuals sitting on the floor and put it together. He crossed his arms and raised an eye ridge. “He went under and didn’t come back up, and you panicked; right?”

“Got it in one,” April said, wry smile on her face.

“April? Oh my gosh!” Donnie dropped his clip board and turned to run right back into his lab. “Let me get you a towel!”

“You have any spare clothes in there?” April yelled after him.

Donnie yelped from inside the room, something clanging as it hit the ground. “No, sorry! Leo, go get one of Sensei’s robes!”

“But those are-“

“Just go already!” Donnie demanded as he hurried over to April with thick grey towels in hand. He dropped one around her shoulders, putting the other on her head. “I’m sorry they’re a little stained, but I swear they’re clean right now, no chemicals on them at all!”

April laughed as she started rubbing the towel against her hair. “Its fine Donnie, thanks for the towels.”

Leo came back out of the dojo holding a brown robe folded up. “He, uh, said you could borrow this one until your clothes were done drying.”

“Thanks Leo,” April motioned him to put them down in her hands. Once he had, she stood up carefully so the towels would stay on. “I’m gonna go dry off in the bathroom, I’ll be right back. Thanks again for this stuff,” She looked down at Mikey and smirked. “Next time you do a high dive and don’t come up right away, make sure everyone present knows that’s normal.”

Mikey saluted her, grinning cheekily. “Will do!”

April walked off for the wash rooms, where she could change in private. Leaving the boys behind to sort things out about what happened. She distinctly heard a smacking sound and Mikey whining.

“No more scaring April, or high dive cannonballs!”

“I said I was sorry okay? I didn’t mean to!”

“Well you fucking did, be a little more conscious about who’s around you!”

“Why is my couch wet?” Master Splinter’s smooth voice asked just as April started to shut the door behind her. April giggled as the four brothers started to place blame on anyone, but themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was honestly so surprised that box turtles could hold their breath for two hours, what a google moment! (can't imagine the world without google, bless them)  
> A note about saving a drowning person, DON'T ATTEMPT UNLESS YOU HAVE TRAINING. In all likelihood, you'd end up drowning along with them. I've been certified myself, so I have a good idea about what I'm talking about. Don't be like April in this situation kids!
> 
> If you feel like it, click over to my profile and take a look around, I've got more than just this fiction up and another one to follow soon enough! I'm just trying to work all the bugs out of it before I post it.
> 
> Have a nice day, and don't forget to kudo and comment!


	11. Tails

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Turtles have tails, right? So where are the brothers'?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh shit wat up  
> Sorry for being slow about this update, I was distracted by family shenanigans and other fics!  
> Further explanations after!

Donatello sighed as he sank deeper into the bath, bubbles and hot water soothing his aching body, letting every limb stretch out. Bubble baths were an indulgence, what with how difficult it was to get a hold of soap. But he’d been working non-stop for the last week on nine different projects, and he thought he deserved a bit of pampering.

Donnie’s mask and usual gear were on the sink’s counter across from the large tub, leaving him even more bare than usual. He scrubbed slowly at his scales with his purple loofa, languid movements because he wasn’t getting out of this heaven until the water got cold.

He closed his eyes and relaxed against the tile side of the tub, sighing deeply, this was exactly what he needed right now. Peace and-

Casey kicked open the door, running full tilt for the toilet and throwing up in it with loud retches. Donnie opened his eyes and glared at the ceiling; why was he never allowed a moment of quiet, even in the bathroom.

He sat up in the mound of bubbles that filled the tub and leaned on the edge with his arms, watching his human friend puke his guts out into the porcelain bowl. Donnie vaguely remembered hearing a lot of noise coming from the kitchen before he went to take a bath, now he knew what had been happening.

“Let me guess, cooking experiments with Mikey?” Donnie asked.

“Nah,” Casey coughed, grabbing for the toilet paper to wipe his mouth. “Competition with Raph to see who could eat the most of Mikey’s food.”

“That was a stupid bet, Raph’s been eating Mikey’s food all our lives; there was no possible way you’d win,” Donnie said, rolling his eyes. He watched Casey dry heave a little longer before sighing and pulling himself out of the tub. “Here, let me get you some Pepto-Bismol and water.”

“Thanks bro,” Casey coughed. “Oh god, I’m never doing that again.”

“Our food is for turtles, dipshit. Your immune system and stomach track isn’t made to digest our food,” Donnie said, opening the cupboard above the sink and pulling out the bright pink bottle and small rinse cup. “Check what you’re eating before you swallow, sometimes we add vitamins or plants you shouldn’t eat.”

“I’ll remember that next time,” Casey said, hacking on last bit of spit into the toilet before leaning back and flushing it. “God, that taste is gonna be on my tongue for like a week. It’s nasty as fuck.”

“Serves you right,” Donnie nudged Casey’s thigh with his foot, holding the bottle of medicine out to him with a measuring spoon. “Here, take your drugs and get out of my bathroom; I only get like twenty minutes of alone time per day lately  and I don’t want you ruining it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Casey took the bottle and poured himself some of the pink liquid. He stuck the spoon in his mouth and handed the bottle back to Donnie. He was licking at the last of the pink on the spoon as he watched Donnie put away the bottle when he noticed something green and four inches long  hanging between Donnie’s legs. Casey choked as he covered his eyes, loudly yelling, “OH MY GOD DON PUT SOME FUCKING CLOTHES ON.”

“What? Casey, we never wear clothes.”

“YOU SHOULD WHEN YOU’RE JACKING OFF, OH GOD MY EYES.”

“When I’m what-NO! That’s not what that is!!” Donnie shouted, green face turning red.

Casey threw himself for the door stumbled into a run. “WARN A GUY WHEN YOU’RE BUSY!”

“GET BACK HERE JONES IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK!!” Donnie yelled, giving chase before Casey could spread the story.

“RAPH, RAPH, YOUR BRO’S FLASHING ME!!” Casey screamed, running for the kitchen where the other turtle was cleaning up their mess with Mikey. Casey jumped over the table and hid behind Raph’s back, covering his eyes again.

“Oh my god, Jones none of us wear fucking clothes. Donnie’s not any more naked than we all are,” Raph kicked his heel backwards into his friend’s leg. “Get offa me, I’m cleaning still. Donnie, what the fuck did you do?”

“ _Nothing_ ,” Donnie replied from the kitchen door, teeth grit and bubbles slipping off him slowly onto the floor.

“He was jacking off and didn’t warn me and _oh god I saw his green dick it was awful!_ ” Casey held a middle finger at the direction he’d heard Donnie’s voice. “Bros warn bros when they’re doing that sort of thing!!”

“Casey, I swear to god, just listen for two seconds. It’s not my dick, it’s my _tail_ ,” Donnie said, murder and embarrassment written all over his face.

Casey peeked over the top of Raph’s shoulder and squinted doubtfully at Donnie. “If that’s true then how come I’ve never seen it before, or on any of you guys!”

“We keep them tucked up all safe like in our shells, Case!” Mikey happily explained. He turned around and let a little green tail emerge and wag in the air. “See? They’re pretty small, so it’s pretty easy to hide ‘em.”

“Why d’you hide ‘em?” Casey asked, morbidly curious as he watched Mikey twirl his tail in circles.

“Well, besides the chance that someone might try to use it as a weak spot in combat, there’s your mistaking of it to be a phallic member,” Donnie wiped away some suds that were dripping into his eyes. “It’s just easier to keep them hidden, rather than field questions like that.”

“Because idiots like you get the wrong idea,” Raph said as he shoved Casey off of him; his tolerance meter for physical contact hitting its limit. He looked at his dripping brother and frowned. “Get out of the kitchen Donnie, it’s already a mess in here and I don’t need any more shit to clean up.”

“Gladly,” Donnie said, about facing and heading back for the warmth of the tub. A small trail of wet footsteps following him out.

Mikey was still dancing in place, showing off his tail. Raph smacked him on the back of the head. “Quit fooling around Mikey, we still gotta clean up the mess _you_ caused.”

“Hey, how is it my fault, you two were the ones who started this!” Mikey whined, rubbing the back of his head.

“Yeah, but you egged us on and provided the food. So, your fault,” Raph tossed a broom at Mikey. “Start sweeping little brother.” He turned on Casey and shoved wash cloths into his hands. “And you, start wiping up the shit you spilt everywhere.”

“Aw c’mon Raph,” Casey looked at the gelatinous substance melting on the table top. He swore he could see something moving in it. “Can’t I switch with you?”

“You spill it, you clean it,” Raph said, zero empathy for his friend. He walked away to get started on the dishes sitting in the sink. Casey grumbled to himself about his gross friends as he started shoving the gelatin into the trash can he’d dragged over. It made wet plops as it went in and smelt like something rancid. Casey gagged, despite the Pepto-Bismol in his system, and felt sick.

In the washroom, Donnie sank back into the hot bubble bath. He locked the door before getting in this time, so if anyone wanted to get in they’d have to wait. He was having his very rare Me Time and no one was allowed to interrupt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If they can suck all their limbs inside of their shell in canon then I can have them hiding their tails in there too dammnit.
> 
> It took forever to get back to this, I've got so many other fics on the go these days! Which will be popping up soon mind you, I'm half way through the long one and the other will be relatively short to write. Look for me in the TMNT FlashFic posting on Tumblr later this month, I'll be putting a fic up around then!
> 
> (Pls let donnie have a good day, or at least a bubble bath, 2k16; he works waaaay too hard for a teen.)
> 
> On another note, I've run out of prompts again! Send some in or headcanons I've missed if you got any, I want this fic to keep going! Alas, my own mind can only generate so many things. So comment your own and I'll see about writing them!
> 
> And hey, almost to a hundred kudos now! Just a couple more! Share this fic around, I wanna see it hit an even 100 before this is all over. Tell a friend, tell your family (if you dare), tell your pet! Gimme those kudos!
> 
> Thanks for stopping by, see you soon as I have more HC's!


	12. Stomachs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Careful what you put in your mouth kids.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been like one day since I updated.
> 
>  
> 
> (Trigger warnings for vomit and illness. Like, a lot.)

“Oh god,” Leo groaned, his stomach roiled again and he leaned his head on the rim of the toilet. “We are never eating anything an alien advises ever again.”

 

Raph's retches into a bucket just outside the washroom were loud, loud enough that it brought another heave from Leo. Donnie and Mikey weren't throwing up at that moment, but the sounds of their elder sibling’s sickness would trigger it again soon. All four turtles were positioned inside, or near the ship's washroom. Mikey was curled around a bucket by the door, and Donnie and Raph were leaned against the walls outside.

 

“Jesus Christ, you guys are _really_ not doing well,” Casey said, coming into the room with more warm towels. “What'd you eat anyways?”

 

Donnie's weak voice floated in from outside. “We most likely ate something similar to Rheum Rhabarbarum, an earth plant of the family Polygonaceae. A type of herbaceous perennial that grows from short, thick rhizomes and-”

 

“Get to the point Donnie, in _English_ ,” Raph growled, hacking into his bucket.

 

“We ate something like rhubarb,” Donnie summarized. He made sick sounds again before continuing, something wet splashing into his bucket. “Turtles can't digest the toxin in the leaves, Oxalic acid; its formula make up is C2H2O4 and is also called Ethanedioic acid, sometimes wood bleach.”

 

“Your literally puking your guts out right now, Don,” Casey handed a warm towel to Leo on the floor, who took it gratefully. “How are you still rambling dumb science facts off.”

 

“It's a talent,” Donnie replied with a weak chuckle, voice rough.

 

“I remember you saying something 'bout that a long time ago, Donnie,” Leo rubbed the towel over his mouth, trying to wipe away the left overs of his vomit. “Something about our kidneys?”

 

“Are we dying? 'Cause I feel like I’m dying,” Mikey whined between dry heaves.

 

“Not dying, just expelling the poison,” Donnie wobbled into the room, hunched around his bucket. “Move over Leo, I gotta dump this.”

 

Leo half dragged, half rolled himself out of the way so Donnie could flush his own sick away. From the sound of Raph outside the door, he would need a clean bucket soon as well. Casey patted Donnie sympathetically on the shell as he handed the taller boy a towel. Donnie took it and hung it around his neck, slumping down to lean against the wall.

 

“Well that's one restaurant we're never visiting again,” April said, fake cheery, as she passed by the door carrying a mob and a large rolling basin filled with water and cleaning product. “I cleaned up all the vomit in the scout ship, and you all owe me for that.”

 

“Thanks April,” Leo said, his brothers all echoing him. “We'll make it up to you later, promise.”

 

“I'm _really_ sorry about this,” Donnie said miserably. “I should have scanned the food for potentially harmful ingredients. It's just, we've been so lucky so far; I didn't remember to.”

 

“No one's blamin' you Dee,” Mikey said, sliding over to be next to his brother to comfort him.

 

“I'm blamin' you a little,” Raph said as he came into the room; his bucket sloshing quietly. “Outta the way Leo, 'less you want this on your head.”

 

Leo sighed and moved away from the toilet bowl again; figures Fugitoid would only have three buckets lying around. He was stuck with the toilet until he either stopped throwing up, or his brothers did. “Can we stick with ship food for a while? I’ve lost my appetite for diner food.”

 

“ _Dude_ , don't even mention food right now,” Mikey groaned, letting his head thunk against the wall.

 

Fugitoid appeared in the doorway, carrying a tray of cups filled with stomach settling liquids. “Hello friends, I see you’re still in the process of purging your toxins! Good, good. That'll help clear things up nicely. You’re all very lucky you have human DNA crossed with your terrapin DNA; the homo-sapiens method of expulsion is very effective at getting rid of poisonous in-edibles.”

 

“You are way too cheery right now, professor,” Raph grumbled, woozily sitting down next to Leo.

 

“Ah, sorry, it's just been so long since I had folks on the ship that still had digestive tracks! I haven't had one in centuries,” Fugitoid bleeped happily. “After the first couple hundred years, you start to miss such quirks of a fleshy form.”

 

“Yeah, quirks,” Leo said sarcastically. He just wanted to enjoy a nice dinner with his family, was that too much to ask? Maybe it was karma for trying to hit on the waitress. He thought she was a she anyways, high pitched voice and all. He hoped she'd been a she.

 

“Oh god here it comes again,” Was all the warning Mikey gave before he threw up into his bucket again. Donnie beside him closed his eyes and covered his mouth, his own rebelling stomach trying to follow Mikey's example.

 

“I fucking hate space,” Raph said, sliding further onto his back. Leo stayed sitting upright, but only barely. Apparently, food poisoning was something not even a ninja could soldier through. The lights of the bathroom glared down at him, making his head pound more.

 

He felt another wave of illness coming upwards and he lurched for the toilet. He heaved as green and purple spilled into the water inside.

 

“Gross,” Casey said eloquently as he washed out Raph's bucket in the sink.

 

“Fuck off,” Leo said, letting the rare cuss word slip out. Everything hurt right now and space was seeming a lot less fun than _Space Heroes_ had made it out to be. He didn't recall Captain Ryan ever getting sick because he'd eaten bad salad.

 

“Now, now, Leonardo,” Fugitoid said, extending his metal arm to hand Leo his towel again. “This is all very natural for illness, and it should pass quite soon! Just let it do as it must, then have some medication. You'll feel right as rain after that!”

 

“Somehow I doubt that, professor,” Donnie said as he handed Casey his bucket for a rinse. “We've poisoned ourselves pretty good; it'll take at least another day for our systems to push it out completely.”

 

“Another day of _this?!”_ Mikey cried, small tears on the rims of his eyes.

 

“Not vomiting, no. Just residual lethargy and sore stomach,” Donnie said, rubbing soothing circles on Mikey's shoulder. “We've got a very hardy immune system; you'll be back to normal soon enough Mikey.”

 

Raph accepted his bucket back from Casey, letting it sit on his plastron as he lay on his shell. “I'm gonna say it again, I. Hate. Space. And April's never choosing dinner again. Fuck vegetables and vegans.”

 

“Then I guess you don't get to pick the movie tomorrow, seeing as you won't be able to get the remote from me,” April said, appearing in the doorway.

 

“Did I say fuck vegetables? I meant, when can we get some more,” Raph amended. April had surprisingly bad taste in movies, and only Donnie was willing to suffer through her choices more than once a week.

 

_“I said don't mention food!!”_ Mikey cried into his bucket. Donnie reached over and rubbed the back of Mikey's neck as he threw up again. Leo felt bad for his youngest sibling, but it made sense he was the sickest; Mikey had eaten two plates before the rest of them were even done with one.

Leo accepted the cup of medicine from Fugitoid and sighed to himself, they dodged a lot of what usually poisoned turtles because of their mutant DNA; but of course their luck wouldn't hold.

“I'm putting up a chart in the kitchen. On poisons. So this doesn't happen again,” Donnie said, handing Mikey his empty bucket and going to flush the full one. Leo grumbled as Donnie nudged him out of the way again, adding Mikey's sick to Leo's.

Leo slumped back down next to Raph and hoped the professor’s medicine worked soon. Especially for Mikey, who didn't seem even close to done yet.

“Fuck space,” Raph said under his breath, sipping at his own cup of drugs.

“Fuck space,” Leo agreed, for once. The clinked their plastic cups against each other's and downed the rest of the contents together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost to a hundred! Keep those kudos coming folks!
> 
> Someone asked for more Leo and someone else asked for some info what their stomachs are like. You got this you two, (or was it one person only?), congratulations.
> 
> They should have stretched the space arc further, added some shenanigans in space beyond just the first episode. Which was gold btw, and will live forever in my heart.
> 
> Keep those HC's and prompts coming people, hit me up with whatever you got in stock. I still need more.
> 
> So in other news, I posted a new fic! Hooray! It's the beginning of that long one I've been mentioning recently, for TMNT and another fandom. Yeah, the dreaded crossover; it had to happen one day, might as well be now. Anyways, go check it out; gimme some feed back on how my writing is developing with each fic. Or, you know, just fan-freakout in the comments; I love those.
> 
> I still got that other TMNT fic up too, stop by there if you have a moment to spare.
> 
> I'm going to sleep now, I'm supposed to go out with a close friend and I don't think falling asleep during the outing is a good idea.
> 
> Thanks for stopping by, love you all!


	13. Vocalization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ♪♪♪♪What does the turtle say?♪♪♪♪

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI EVERYONE  
> Sorry for disappearing into the void, I'm super distractable with fanfics that aren't my own. (´ヘ｀)  
> I love reading almost more than I love writing!  
> Not to mention, this one was a bit of a challenge! It took me a while to think of any sort of scenario for any of the prompts you guys gave me. But I persevered! And I think I like this one the best so far.
> 
> Enjoy!

The first time April heard one of the brothers make an inhuman sound was when she snuck up on Donnie accidentally.

It’s somewhere in the first few weeks of getting to know them, and Donnie is in his lab with two whiteboards in front of him. April can hear him muttering to himself as she walked quietly into the room. Its late afternoon for her, but early morning for the guys; when she’d come into the lair through the turnstiles, Leo was the only one who seemed fully awake at the breakfast table. Mikey was still in the process of waking up fully as he made the food, and Raph had been all but passed out on the table. They’d waved her into Donnie’s lab when she’d asked about progress in finding her father.

She got within arm’s reach and Donnie still hadn’t noticed her, so she reached out to tap his shoulder. The moment her fingers made contact, Donnie jumped with a loud hiss that made April jump backwards herself. He was still hissing loudly as he whirled to face whoever interrupted him, which died in his throat when he saw it was her.

“Um,” He squeaked, looking mortified. “…sorry?”

April shook her head, trying to roll with the weirdness. “It’s fine; you just surprised me is all. What was that, the hissing?”

“We, uh, hiss when we get startled. Or upset. Or angry...” Donnie rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, hunching a bit in embarrassment. “It’s really stupid, I’m sorry about that. But it’s just, you know, another turtle thing,” He laughed nervously, biting his lip. “I can’t help it when someone spooks me.”

“I’m sorry too, I should have said something before I snuck up on you,” April said, ducking her head and feeling just as awkward as the taller turtle. “I just wanted to stop by and ask about my dad.”

“Oh! Yes, well I have a couple theories about that. If you’ll just come and take a look at these possibilities I came up with…”

 

 

 

The second time April heard them make less than human noises, which is to say not at all human, was Raph and Leo fighting in the dojo.

Since the incident with Donnie, the turtles hadn’t shown that side of their mutation around her. It was complete accident that she was walking into the dojo, to ask what pizza they wanted to order, and found the two elder brothers tussling.

Leo had Raph on the defense and was getting right in his face with attacks to the scaled underarm of his sides. Raph grunted angrily and hissed right in Leo’s face, grappling at the other turtle’s shoulders to push him off. Leo responded with something close to a hoot as he danced away, dodging Raph’s punches.

Leo flipped out of Raph’s reach again as the other struck out at his legs, clicking loudly at Raph’s own frustrated hoots. Leo’s confident clicks turned into hisses again when Raph got the upper hand, catching Leo’s arm and throwing him. Leo fought with Raph on the dojo’s mats, trying to escape the brawnier turtle’s grip; both exchanging hisses and hoots the whole time.

April stood in the doorway listening to the two turtles click and hiss back and forth between each other as they sparred, curious about what they were saying. The fight ended with Raph pinning Leo and clicking in a way that was definitely smug. Leo hissed softly, waving a hand to show he was beaten and calling the match.

April cleared her throat, drawing their attention to her. Raph looked up and realized that she’d just seen the two of them making animalistic sounds for the last five minutes. He scowled and looked away from her, as Leo stood up looking just as embarrassed. “Hey, uh, April, did you need something?”

“Just asking what pizzas to order; Donnie’s got the guy on the phone,” April shrugged. At this point, half the things the brothers did didn’t even faze her; though the clicking and hooting was new.

“Oh! One veggie and one meat-lovers please,” Leo replied hurriedly. “We’ll be out in a little bit, just finishing some sparring. Yup, sparring, you know how ninjas are.”

Raph grumbled and elbowed Leo’s side, an unsubtle message to shut up already. April shook her head and walked away from the dojo, catching bits of hisses and the sounds of fists connecting as she made her way back to the kitchen.

 

 

 

The third and most recent moment April heard one of the brothers make a (new) turtle sound was at the farm house, when she was counting all the edible canned foods during their first week there.

The other two brothers still up and moving were upstairs making Leo comfortable; the eldest brother was stable, but not out of the woods yet. He needed around the clock care until it would be safe enough to let him slip into a coma fully. Casey was in town at the moment, looking for possible jobs he could pick up, and Mikey was flopped over the table top; they hadn’t had lunch yet that day, and he wasn’t allowed to start on it until she finished cataloguing.

She was focusing on getting all the numbers lined up and figuring how long they’d last without new food, when she noticed a thrumming moan had filled the air; it was loud enough she could feel it in her chest cavity. April looked up to find the source, and found it was coming from a currently face down Mikey.

“Mikey?” April asked. The humming moan quieted as he looked up questioningly, but it was still there. “Your making sounds, what’s up?”

Mikey blinked, and then widened his eyes. The moan cut off with him coughing slightly. “Sorry! I didn’t notice I was doing that.”

“Are you okay?” April leaned onto the counter, looking at her friend’s face for distress.

“I’m fine, just hungry is all,” Mikey laughed. His stomach rumbled in agreement, loud enough April could hear it across the kitchen. He rubbed his stomach and grimaced. “When we get hungry, sometimes we’ll make turtley sounds. I remember doing it a lot when I was little ‘cause that’s how I told dad I was hungry.” Mikey smiled sadly. “Guess I miss him a lot right now, since I was sorta calling for him without realizing it.”

April looked away from Mikey’s melancholy smile and instead at the notes she’d taken for the food stock; they had enough to live off the cans alone for at least three weeks if they ate sparingly; but with three mutant turtles with high metabolisms and a teenage boy who _also_ had a high metabolism, she thought it might last a little over a week and a half.

She sighed, feeling heavy from their losses, and picked up two cans of ravioli. April lifted them up to show Mikey. “How about we make lunch then? I’m done with adding things up, just gotta set up a system to keep track of how much we’ve used.”

Mikey lit up and bounded over from the table to grab the cans. “I’ll get started right away, d’you see where the pots are hiding?”

“I think they’re under that side of the counter…” April crouched and opened the cupboards, finding a number of dusty pots. She pulled out a decently sized one and held it up to Mikey to start washing.

When the rest of the troops came down stairs, April caught a couple humming moans from Donnie and Raph that answered Mikey's excited clicking; much quieter than Mikey’s moan earlier, but still audible to her. She splurged a little and added a bit extra of the noodles to all of their plates. Casey and she could eat something together later on; right then the boys needed the pasta more than them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To whoever suggested this one, thanks! Once I got around to really researching turtle vocals, I had a lot of fun coming up with this little thing. I've never read a fic with any sort of mention about their less human like noises, only found a single, really obscure comic in the depths of Tumblr one time. So again, thanks! I get to be one of the first on this topic. (That I know of)
> 
> And WHOA, OVER A HUNDRED KUDOS? WOW. Thanks so much to everyone who's been reading my fic, it makes me extremely happy that people have so much interest in it! (///∇///)
> 
> I'll get to work on the next chapter soon as I can puzzle something out of the other prompts; until then, ya'll should go look at my profile for my other TMNT fictions. They should keep you company until this one shows up again. (Which will be soon, it actually made me really guilty for not updating; even if I couldn't figure out what to write.)
> 
> Until later then, adieu! ヘ(^_^ヘ)


	14. Shells part 2, and Need for Heat part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The obligatory bath scene. (°∀°)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello folks, another update for you all!
> 
> Warnings only for gracious amounts of fluff everywhere.

“You need a bath, Leo,” April said, staring the newly conscious turtle down. It'd been a full two days since Leo woke up, and she was tired of everything in their shared home smelling like wet reptiles. “We did our best to keep you clean, but you need a good scrub.”

 

Leo looked embarrassed, ducking his head. “Um, yeah, I know I need one. But I’ve been distracted, what with the coming out of a coma thing.”

 

“Well, you couldn't have timed it any better,” April crossed her arms, jutting one hip. “I've been considering dunking Raph in the tub myself. You two can take one together or something, save us the water bill.”

 

“That's not actually a bad plan,” Mikey commented from the other side of the couch he shared with Leo. They'd been watching TV, and Mikey had been getting Leo up to date with all the shows he'd missed. “We haven't done a communal bath in a long time.”

 

April raised her eyebrows. “I wasn't serious, do you guys actually do that?”

 

Mikey shrugged. “Shells are hard to clean bro, sometimes we need help with getting the hard to reach spots. Easier than scrubbing for like a half hour with a loofa.”

 

April tilted her head, thinking of how much they could afford to spend on bathing products, before nodding. “I'll buy some soaps and scrubbies, think you can corral Don and Raph?”

 

Mikey gave her an 'A-okay' sign, ignoring Leo's soft protests about not needing help with washing. “Consider it done.”

 

 

 

 

 

“I could have done this myself,” Leo complained as Mikey ran another stroke across his shell.

 

“Shush bro, you know you like it,” Mikey picked at the bits of dirt that had settled in the lines of his brother's shell, before running the scrubbie over it again. “You always loved having your shell washed. And besides! You can't even walk win against Casey in an arm wrestle right now, you won't have the strength to get all this grit out on your lonesome.”

 

Leo grumbled, but let his younger brother keep washing. They were sitting in a large blow up swimming pool April and Casey had brought back with them; easier to fill this with hot water than to try and stuff the four of them into the small upstairs washroom.

 

Raph was working on Donnie's shell and neck areas, his already cleaned by his scientist brother. Leo could hear Donnie making pleased clicks at his elder brother, Donnie's shoulders and thighs always cramped up from hunching over a desk all day. Raph's ministrations were working out the knots, as well as getting the farm dust off.

 

Mikey switched the scrubbie out for a loofa covered in gentle-on-skin shampoo, and started on his brother's shoulders. Leo felt something loosen up in his muscles, and he let out an involuntary string of clicks. Mikey hummed back at him, his plastron transmitting the pleasant vibrations through Leo's shell.

 

Raph was in a good mood too, he always was after a bath even if he avoided them like the plague, and clicked back Leo. Soon enough, all four of them were humming and clicking back forth between themselves. They'd been separated for months, and it felt better than anything to be connected again.

 

When Mikey took the loofa away from Leo's scales, Leo let himself sink into the warm water filled with bubbles. He was on his plastron, with his secondary eyelids shut against the soap and water. With his hearing ducts submerged, he could hear Raph and Mikey's conversation better. Leo drifted over to be beside Donnie, who was mostly out of his head at that moment. Massages made his brother very sleepy, especially when it was combined with warm water.

 

Leo lifted his head out of the water to look at Mikey and Raph; Raph had started washing Mikey's shell for him, grumbling that he was doing all the work.

 

Leo nudged Donnie, humming softly in his chest to get his attention. Donnie opened his eyelids down to the clear one, questioning why someone was waking him. Leo poked him until Donnie sat up, Leo followed with only bit of trouble; his arms difficult to coordinate still after two days up and about.

 

“What d'you need,” Donnie asked, still sleepy from the warm water and hot summer sun beating down on them.

 

“Can you help me with my legs? I can't get them on my own,” Leo lifted his uncooperative legs as a demonstration; his muscles were still too weak for him to hold them in one position for more than a few seconds. Donnie sighed, but reached over and grabbed a discarded loofa from the water. Leo pushed himself against the wall of the pool while his brother snagged a bottle of soap from the lawn.

 

Leo held his legs up best he could, Donnie supporting most of the weight, while they scrubbed together. Leo got the scales upwards his thighs, and Donnie washed the rest of his legs. Donnie even went so far as to scrub between Leo's toes, which Leo hummed a thank you for. Donnie shrugged, communal baths were a rare treat, and Leo needed the help. He was fine giving a bit of extra effort just this once.

 

When they were done, they let the loofas float off and sank back into the warm water. His plastron injury didn't hurt at all, and his legs weren't aching in the least. Leo hadn't felt this at ease since he'd woken up, or maybe even before that.  They'd never had a bath underneath the sun before, and it felt amazing. He didn't think he could ever go back to the ones they could get in the lair, not when he'd tasted what this was like.

 

Leo let himself drift off, blissed out and completely relaxed. He barely stirred when Raph and Mikey joined him and Donnie, only waking enough to click back at Mikey. The four of them rested on the bottom of the pool, warm and together. Why had they ever stopped doing this? They should really do it more often.

 

Leo felt something tap him on the back of his shell, warbling voices from above water talking at him and his brothers. He raised himself mostly out of the water, and blinked at the two humans standing above him.

 

“You guys doin' alright?” Casey asked, looking at the four turtles in the pool. “You went under and didn't come back.”

 

“We're totally fine bruh,” Mikey drawled, almost as sleepy as Leo. “Jus' enjoying the water.”

 

April laughed, shaking her head. “If I knew you guys were so docile when you did this, I would have insisted a long time ago.”

 

Donnie mumbled something too unclear to decipher, still closer to being asleep than awake. April clearly understood, and rolled her eyes. “We've got lunch on the way; think you four could crawl out of here any time soon?”

 

“Give us five,” Mikey replied, sinking back into the water. Leo wanted to follow, but the water wasn't as warm as it had been, and it had dirt and grass floating in it now. Leo sighed, reluctant to leave the residual warmth, but they needed to get out and dry off.

 

He poked and clicked at his brothers until they started moving, Raph hissing a couple times at Leo for waking him up. Eventually he had them all out of the pool, and sunning themselves on thick towels they'd set out beforehand.

 

It was a little breezy as the water evaporated, but the sun did it quick enough that it became warmer than the pool had been. Leo stretched out on his front, knocking a little against Mikey on his left and Raph on his right. Despite their usual insistences for space, they didn't mind clustering together again like they had as kids.

 

They didn't move an inch from that extremely comfortable position until April came to get them for lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Watch me include turtle sounds in every fanfic I write from here on out.
> 
> ...This was actually more flustering to write than hard core smut would have been. Asexuality is the weirdest thing.
> 
> Am I alone in my need for more brotherly interactions? The series is definitely letting me down in that regard. I want weird family rituals and mushy sibling moments; explosions are great and all, but gimme some fluff here!
> 
> Thanks for all of your continued support, tell me in the comments if you liked this chapter!


	15. Need for Heat part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened all those months when Leo was asleep?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This... ended up being a lot more somber than I intended.
> 
> It was just supposed to be sleepy cuddles, I swear.

Winter arrived fast and hard at the farm house, swamping the area in thick drifts of snow. The temperature was shockingly cold during the day, and it plummeted further at night. As the winter dragged on, the two human teenagers noticed distinct changes in the three turtles still up and about.

 

This was that they weren’t up and about much at all, not since the snow had settled in.

 

It took up to three cups of coffee to get Donnie moving in the mornings, and April had been seriously considering letting Mikey have a cup just so he'd get up before ten. The three of them ate less, moved around less, and got quieter as it got colder.

 

“Is this because you’re turtles?” April asked Donnie, watching him struggle to fully wake up with a hot mug of coffee.

 

“Yeah... happens less since we moved into the lair... but I don't have any of our heating blankets here. Or heating vents. Or heating anything,” Donnie sipped miserably at his drink. “I'm sorry we're not being much use right now, it's hard to stay awake and coherent.”

 

“I've noticed.”April said as she leaned her body sideways to look through the open door to the living room, where Mikey was passed out on one couch and Raph fading in and out on the other; the television was on still, flickering light across the room.

 

Donnie scrubbed at his eyes with both hands, a frustrated sigh escaping. “I don't want to make you and Casey do all the work, but we can't even go outside.”

 

April reached across the table and pulled Donnie's hands away from his face, offering an understanding smile. “I know you want to help out, but you guys can't help this. It's just a part of who you are, so don't worry. Me and Casey handle a bit of extra work.”

 

“Still though...” Donnie said, looking upset with himself.

 

“Still nothing, Donnie. It's fine if you guys need to sleep, we've got a handle on things, okay?” April squeezed his larger hands in hers. “Just do what you need to do.”

 

Donnie smiled back at her, a knit of worry leaving his expression.

 

He explained over dinner that night that though the four brothers didn't properly hibernate, they still felt the need to sleep for long periods of during winter. Before they had the lair and all the amenities that came with it, they spent most winter sleeping the weeks away to save food and water. It made things easier on their father, and gave them a better chance of making it to spring without minor starvation.

 

After a bit of debate, and minor fighting, it was decided the three brothers would start doing that. It would cut down the cost of food as well as heating and water bills. They dragged two mattresses into the living room, the warmest part of the house, and added multiple blankets and pillows to it. When they deemed it comfortable enough, the three turtles crawled into the pile to sleep.

 

And so started the winter routine.

 

Casey and April kept the house running, taking odd jobs in town for shoveling or grocery runs for less able bodied families. With the help of April's emergency bank card, the two humans kept the fridge stocked and the electricity on. All the while, the three turtles slept on and off; for sometimes days.

 

Donnie was the one who woke himself up the most, to check on Leo's health, his experiments in the spare bedroom, or to just spend time with his friends. Raph rarely spent more than a couple hours awake per week, eating and bathroom breaks were the limit to his activities. It unsettled April more than she would admit to not see Mikey bouncing around, the youngest turtle too tired to do much more than watch cartoons.

 

Rare moments would have them all conscious together, for family dinners or movie nights. The two humans appreciated the effort their friends put into staying awake to spend time with them; it got lonely with only one other person to talk with.

 

Lethargic as it was, they managed something like a Christmas celebration when the holiday rolled around. There was a larger than normal meal made up of whatever was on sale at the deli, and some dollar store decorations. Casey even hauled in a pine tree that had been growing near the house, and draped some Christmas lights on it. There wasn't enough money for many gifts, but they made promises that the next holiday would make up for it.

 

They spent that night together on the mattress pile, talking about fond memories of their individual families until all of them fell asleep.

 

 

 

 

 

April leaned against the door frame of the living room, watching the three brothers sleep. They were swathed in blankets, curled close to one another with pillows under and on top of them. Their masks had been discarded weeks ago, leaving them bare faced. They looked so young, and so much less human like this; sleeping longer than it would be healthy for a human to.

 

April sighed, running a hand through her hair. Sometimes she felt overwhelmed by her friends. She loved each of them dearly, but there were days she missed her average life.

 

Seeing them so peaceful made her melancholy, not just because it gave her time to dwell on thoughts like that, but because she’d never seen them so restful. Every moment since she’d met them had been full of danger and wild adventures. It reminded her that while she could miss her normal life, they couldn’t because they’d never known anything else.

 

April felt very old for just sixteen years of age.

 

“Hey,” Casey’s hand on her shoulder startled her from her thoughts. “What’s up?”

 

“Nothing, just thinking,” April replied, turning her eyes back to the sleeping brothers. Casey looked at them too, watching the blankets move ever so slightly as a sign of breathing.

 

He leaned against the opposite side of the doorway, crossing his arms. “It’s weird to see them so quiet like this. It’s usually all go, go, go with them.”

 

“Yeah… I hope winter ends soon,” April said, her voice soft in the silent house.

 

 

 

 

 

Michelangelo’s least favorite time of the year was winter; it made him sluggish and too tired to do anything worth actually getting up for.

 

Sleeping was great, but doing it for days and days and _days_ was just boring.

 

The few times he could manage to wake up to watch his cartoon marathons, every second and fourth Saturday of the month; he couldn’t keep track of the story line very well. Even when he told himself he’d had enough sleeping, no more sleeping please, please, please; his body would betray him and make him drift away again.

 

At least he had a good imagination, dreaming was about as interesting as it got for him. Mikey supposed that as long as he could keep dreaming every time he went back to sleep, it wasn’t too bad. Getting to share a bed with his brothers again made it even better, since every time he woke up he could find them right there beside him. They hadn’t shared a bed in years, not since they got their own rooms.

 

Occasionally his dreams would be nightmares; squirrelenoids, Shredder, their dad drowning… and he’d wake up shaken and scared. Whenever he did though, he could click at one of his brothers until they woke up to assure him it was a dream, and then it would be okay again.

 

It would be better if Leo was with them though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Usually sleeping through winter wouldn’t bother Raphael, but this time it did.

 

He wasn’t at home, he didn’t have his family together, and every time he woke up he’d be confused. They'd been in the farm house for months now, but he'd still wake up thinking they should be in the lair.

 

Whenever he got hungry, or needed to piss, or just stretch a bit, he'd roll over and think he was in his messy bedroom back in New York. But instead he'd be met with the fading paint of the walls and probably have knocked into one of his sleeping younger brothers.

 

Then he'd kick himself for forgetting.

 

Sleep, eat, bathroom, repeat. Check on Leo, check on April and Casey, check on his two younger brothers, and then sleep more. Ignore the nightmares, ignore the guilt about not saving his dad, ignore how restless he felt even if all he could do was sleep.

 

Sleep.

 

That was all he did for months. Sometimes he'd change it up with some television or a quick shower, but that schedule didn't shift otherwise.

 

If they'd been home, if everything he knew was still intact, Raph wouldn't have minded sleeping away the winter away. But they weren't, so he slept on even with the urge to get up and do _something,_ day in and day out.

 

Spring couldn't come fast enough, and he hoped Leo would wake up when it did.

 

 

 

 

 

Donatello never slept for very long, even before they got involved in the feud between Shredder and his father.

 

He could go days with little more than eight hours of sleep strung out across the week. His mind was a swirl of ideas and wonderings; why sleep when he could build, or theorize, or learn something new? If he didn't physically collapse from lack of it, he'd never sleep again.

 

It was probably because of how little he usually slept, that he was able to stay awake long enough to spend time with his human friends. He felt bad for making them take all of the work on, he was the one in charge of keeping things running not them, and made the effort to at least be there for them some of the time.

 

His body would demand it of him, but he'd shut up the instinct to keep sleeping with coffee and will power. He still had Leo to take care of, long term experiments to check up on; he couldn't just sleep every hour of the day away.

 

Of course, caffeine would only work so long before his system burned through it completely and then it was off to dream land yet again. And whenever that happened, the next time he woke up it would be back in the sleeping pile. Neither of his brothers ever complained about having carried him back to bed, so he could only assume it'd been April and Casey who did.

 

The thought of them having to do it so often made him feel ashamed; his anatomy forcing him into another embarrassing situation. Being unable to anything useful made him feel... unnecessary. His whole purpose up to that point had been working non-stop to keep his family safe.

 

Now his eldest brother was in a coma, his father was MIA, and all of New York was under hostile control. And he couldn't do anything except wait for time to pass.

 

If it hadn't been for the near hibernation, he might have gone off the edge waiting for something he could do.

 

With nothing in the house that needed his attention, he forced himself to let go of reality for a while. Just focusing on the little things, and tangling around his brothers underneath warm blankets.

 

 

 

 

 

Mikey would octopus around Donnie or Raph, whoever was closest, and end up dragging them all together in the middle. If his brothers been fully conscious whenever he did, maybe they'd have fought it, but even then...

 

There were only three of them now, their leader out of commission for an indefinite amount of time, their father missing, their home in ruins; all they had was each other. It felt like they were homeless again, young and afraid that they might not make it until spring; but it worse because they were missing two members of their family.

 

They took turns having nightmares, sometimes daymares, and waking up in a panic. Sometimes it was Mikey, coming back to consciousness with a sniffle and tear tracks, muffled words about monsters and things in the shadows even they didn't enter. Sometimes it was Raph, thrashing awake and gasping for breath like he was the one who drowned. On the rare occasion it was Donnie, starting awake from hyper realistic dreams of his family dying along with New York, unable to do anything to stop it.

 

No one made fun of anyone, not for having fears or bad dreams. Just pulling whoever it was that time closer, and humming a comforting vibration until they could all sleep again.

 

There was no judgement, not when they were already so divided.

 

The three of them kept on sleeping as long as the world outside remained white, waiting for the snow to stop falling.

 

 

 

 

 

Casey didn't mind the work he took, he was already used to the cold and his muscles appreciated the work out.

 

With only retired couples, single bachelors, and young families living in the tiny town, he got a lot of jobs for shoveling walk ways and breaking up iced over pavement. He took any job he could get his hands on, putting all of the funds away into a huge jar he and April had found in the pantry. It was for spring, or whenever her bank card ran out.

 

They'd need it, with six people again to feed and keep warm come the end of winter. Or whenever the turtles decided to wake up.

 

He only let April spend a little of it, on winter jackets, pants, and shoes for them. He'd insisted at first that he could manage with just his hoodie and high tops, but she hadn't budged on the subject. If they were doing the jobs no one else could, then they wouldn't get sick while they did. The only reason he'd said yes was because she'd explained that if one of them went down, it could be the final swing at their house of cards. They needed all hands on deck to keep the house running, and this meant that getting sick wasn't an option.

 

He'd agreed after that, but convinced her to buy only the cheapest stuff they could find.

 

Most of the jobs they got were manual labor, during which he took a larger portion of the work. April would do about a quarter of each of those jobs, and then go to find one less physically demanding. Casey wasn't sure how she did it, but she'd talk local store owners into giving her odd jobs around their shops. More of her freaky mind juju stuff maybe, but it didn't really matter to him; a job was a job, didn't matter how they got it.

 

A few times, when they were both working a shoveling job together, some asshole would look April up and down and ask if she was interested in another job he had for her. Those jobs they never took again, after April politely declined the offers and took the money for the shoveling; whenever it happened, he watched her swallow her rage and smile as though she didn't want to rip the guy a new breathing hole. Seeing how tightly she kept her anger wrapped up made him keep his in check, they couldn't afford to make a bad impression; word would get around and people might not pay them anymore.

 

It was hard work, and his callouses doubled in size, but it was worth it.

 

Best part of his week was whenever the brothers roused themselves enough for a meal with them. Before the cold set in, they'd been at each other's throats a number of times, cooped up and frustrated at their helplessness. But now? Casey missed having their company, even the times when he or they stepped on an exposed nerve and fought about it.

 

Seeing them cuddling together in the living room made him laugh at first, but later it turned into something between jealousy and pity. If only he could sleep away the months, avoid having to think at all about what they'd lost. But Casey also realized it would drive him crazy to not even be able to leave the house, not talk to anyone or do anything because you couldn't wake up enough to.

 

His three friends might have gotten something close to the easy way out of things, but he also recognized that it was hard for them to give up their hand in what was happening. They were all completely self-sufficient from years of surviving on the edges of society, and now they had to depend on two teenage humans to keep the house in order. Depend on their friends to protect them while they were vulnerable.

 

He might have understood that, but he still took a ton of photos of their turtle pile. Casey might be something close to responsible now, but he wasn't going to pass up the chance for blackmail whenever this blew over.

 

He spent a lot of time with April during the long hours of the day, talking about whatever they could think of. A good time to get closer to her, maybe finally be the guy she chose, but it felt... wrong. Because Donnie wasn't awake to try too. When he got morals like that, Casey had no clue, but it felt like a dirty trick to take advantage of the situation when his rival was incapacitated.

 

Plus, it wasn't like he and April were really ready for a relationship at that moment. Their families were missing, and their homes had been taken. Maybe when things got back to normal, but until then going past friendship would have to wait.

 

Getting a girlfriend while everyone else was either comatose or being used as an alien slave sounded like a shitty thing to do anyways.

 

 

 

 

 

Leonardo didn't know he was asleep, didn't know his home was gone, didn't know he'd almost died.

 

His consciousness was almost completely dissolved, like a cloud of wordless sentences and memories. He couldn't form a coherent thought... couldn't remember anything that had happened recently... all he could do was exist.

 

In his coma, he'd become a haze of dreams. Drifting completely away from the reality outside his own mind.

 

Sometimes he'd be together enough to dream properly, but those would dissipate back into blurring colors and sounds soon enough.

 

He didn't know who he was, what he was, or how he'd come to be.

 

All he knew was the endless cycle of his dreams and black nothingness.

 

All he knew was sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

The world kept turning around the small house, and eventually the cold receded.

 

When the days finally stopped falling below freezing, the three turtles could move almost freely again. There were still weeks that turned back to winter, and they'd be forced into their slumber once more, but those weeks grew less and less until it was reliably warm every day.

 

Grass grew, leaves returned, and they could finally step outside again.

 

They reunited with their human friends, who they thanked for waiting so patiently and working so hard. A small celebration was held, for the end of the miserable months known as winter, for the return of their family.

 

Two became five again, and then they had to wait some more, for their final member to wake up.

 

Donatello threw himself into his experiments, using his own blood as samples to try and create a medicine that would heal his brother. Now that he wasn't bogged down by his own body, he worked twice as hard as before. Sleep was irrelevant when his big brother was still injured and the world in jeopardy.

 

Raphael worked through exercise after exercise, fighting to regain the strength he'd lost in sleep. And when he wasn't doing that, he was keeping vigil over his only elder brother. He could do that much, be the wall between his family and the world again, and be there for Leo whenever he woke up. Because he would, there was no way Leo would leave them like that. Never in a million years.

 

Casey and April kept taking odd jobs in town, kept adding money to the jar. The numbers in her bank account were getting low, and they could only use them now to pay for the electricity and heat. They worked hard, bartered for the best deals, and did their best to keep the house afloat.

 

Michelangelo knew he couldn't do any of those things. Not smart enough, not strong enough, and unable to work for money. But he could smile and laugh and make sure his family took care of themselves. He made food for Donnie, drained and filled Leo's water, and reminded Raph to go easy with the training. He did his best to help out around the farm house while his human friends worked, made himself available for anything they might need. And when his family's frustrations got to them, he gave them an easy target to take it out on.

 

Mikey may not have the cure to cancer hiding somewhere in his head, or arms strong enough to crush any foe, or have the ability to bring money into the house; but he could try to keep his family smiling, keep their bad thoughts at bay. It wasn't much, but he could do that.

 

 

 

 

Months later, Leonardo finally woke up from the void inside himself.

 

 

 

 

That's when things finally started to move forwards again.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Watch me turn everything I touch into sads. Oh how I love the sads.
> 
> Originally someone asked for lethargic turtles on the farm, (I think that's how it was worded), but I obviously took things a couple steps further. Sorry bud, I'm pretty sure this wasn't what you imagined happening. Too late now. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Eventually I'll do a longer fic about the months that Leo was in that coma, lots of room for fun angsty things.
> 
> Um, on a mostly unrelated note, any of you long term readers remember the time I said I had a tumblr? Yeah, I went back and changed that a bit. I have a proper writing tumblr now, which I'd be happy if you went and followed. Put my name out there as a writer. (It's onthespectrumwriting, and it's almost exclusively for writing and turtles.)
> 
> I've seen people do that drabbling thing, mini-mini fics only like a few sentences long, and if anyone wanted to try that with me I'd be happy for the exercise. Just drop an ask or something, I'll answer just about anything.
> 
> Much thanks for all the support, I can't believe how many there are of you!
> 
> See you next update!


	16. Nails

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for disappearing, I got pulled into an obsessive writing session for my newest fic, Division Difference. (yet another tmnt fic, what a surprise)
> 
> But yeah, enjoy this chapter and maybe check out my new fic; if your a user who's enjoyed brotherly bonding and turtle noises so far, go look at it. You'll probably be tickled pink about it. >‿‿◕

About two days into March, the turtles are finally up and moving again after their long winter sleep. Casey's been waiting for this, since he and Raph hadn't spent any time hanging out over winter. He's sitting at the dining table with a plate of sandwiches, waiting for Raph to finally drag his ass into the kitchen for lunch. His and the other two brothers' sleep schedules had been completely out of whack lately, and it'd been hell trying to get them to start normal day hours again.

 

The sliding door between the living room and kitchen slid open, revealing Raph still looking tired as hell and holding a blanket over his shell like a cloak; his arms were hidden under the blanket and only his knees down could be seen.

 

Casey snorted, finding his friend's misery amusing. “Good morning to you, sunshine.”

 

“Bite my ass, Jones,” Raph grumbled. He shuffled into the room, dragging the blanket's ends on the floor. “I couldn't sleep until four AM last night, and I woke up to Mikey shoving me onto the floor.” Raph paused, looking at the plate of one and half sandwiches. “You better be plannin' to share those.”

 

Casey picked up the lone half of sandwich and held it out to Raph, still chewing on his own. “Duh, would I ever withhold food from you, buddy?”

 

“Yes, on multiple occasions,” Raph deadpanned. “Now give me that sandwich before I take it.”

 

Casey rolled his eyes, shaking the sandwich again for his friend to take. Raph removed his left arm from his blanket cloak, and reached for it with his long... claws...

 

Casey spat out his half chewed bite of sandwich, coughing violently.

 

Raph slowly clenched his still extended hand, glaring at Casey; wet bits of bread stuck all over his front and face. “Okay, now you’re giving me _all_ the sandwiches.”

 

“You-you got claws dude! Where'd that shit come from?!” Casey said, jabbing a finger at Raph's long nails. Those had definitely not been there when he last checked, long and darkly colored; they were a cross between animal claws and human finger nails, an inch long on each digit.

 

Raph looked even less impressed now. He dropped the blanket from his shoulders and took a seat across from Casey at the table, leaning forwards on his elbows. He picked up the tea towel on the table and wiped off the spittle Casey had gotten on him, not breaking eye contact with Casey once.

 

Casey dropped the slightly squished sandwiches back onto the plate, leveling his own stare. “They weren't there before Raph; don't blame me for being surprised!”

 

“You’re an idiot Jones, you've seen me filing my nails at least five times before now,” Raph flashed the three claws of his right hand, clacking them together. “ _This_ is what happens when we don't file. And in case you didn't notice, I just took a four month nap; not a lot of time to do mani-pedis.”

 

Casey watched the claws move, evaluating the new addition to his friend. “...can I touch 'em?”

 

Raph sighed like Casey just asked him to push a boulder uphill, but put out his hand for examination. “Pass me the food if we're playing show-an'-tell.”

 

 

 

 

 

April and Mikey showed up not long after, carrying a small package of nail polishes and an evil glint in their eyes; Mikey's were already done and dried, light blue like the sky.

 

“C'mooooon Raph,” Mikey whined, shooting puppy dog eyes at his brother. “Our nails are never this long; I wanna make the most of it a'fore we gotta cut 'em again!”

 

“Why aren't you bothering Donnie about this,” Raph growled, pushing Mikey away from him.

 

“Because he's lame and already cut his off this morning, and won't let me get inside the barn,” Mikey replied, pouting. He sidled up to Raph again, grinning and nudging Raph's side. “ _Pleeeease?_ ”

 

“If I let you, will you leave me alone?”

 

Mikey grabbed Raph's hands, nodding furiously.

 

Which is how Raph and Casey both found themselves getting their nails painted.

 

“...They're just gonna get cut off soon as I got clippers, Mikey,” Raph said, watching his brother apply another layer of red color.

 

“Shoosh! You have to keep them for at least two days, otherwise all my hard work will be for nothing!” Mikey exclaimed, delicately dipping the brush back into its bottle.

 

“You have to admit Raph,” April said, painting Casey's pinky in black; his color scheme an alternating of black and white. “It looks really good. Matches your mask and everything.”

 

“I like mine,” Casey said, examining his finished hand and blowing on the still setting polish. “I think I get why girls do this kinda shit all the time.”

 

April laughed, shaking her head. “Glad you've seen the light Casey, maybe you can help me with mine later.”

 

Raph raised his hand to look at his ruby red claws, flashing them in the light. Okay, he could see why people liked this. Didn't mean he'd do it again after this, too much work and claws were a really bad idea as a martial artist.

 

April applied one last layer to Casey's nails, and then released him. As Casey looked at his newly painted nails, he nodded in approval. “Totally dragging Don in here to get his done, soon as I’m dry.”

 

“Ooooh, yes please, he'll let _you_ in the barn,” Mikey giggled, shooting a meaningful glance at Casey; who missed the meaning completely.

 

Raph rolled his eyes, they'd only been fully awake for barely a day, and they were already descending into mayhem as usual.

 

 

 

 

 

Donnie was in fact, dragged kicking and screaming into a dining room chair to have his nails painted.

 

By the time dinner arrived, his shortened claws were a lovely shade of plum, and April and Casey looked very smug indeed.

  


  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd just like to thank the many people reading this fic, we're almost at the halfway point to 200!
> 
> I touched your all enjoying my writing so much, I'll try to meet the standards!


	17. Sense of smell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for disappearing so long, I'm really obsessed about my newest tmnt fanfiction lately I can't think of much else!
> 
> It's good, I swear, and you should all go check it out. I've officially written more in those first five chapters than in all of Anatomy combined!
> 
> I'll stop talking now, enjoy this chapter!

 

During her first weeks with the turtles, April got very tired of smelling nothing but sewage; on both herself, and in the air around her. Her solution? Bring a bottle of perfume from her apartment down into the sewers with her.

She tested this idea right after she’d entered the tunnels, dabbing the liquid under her nose and stepping through a spritz. She took a deep breath, the musk of filth less overpowering with the smell of peaches over it.

When April returned to the lair, heading for Donnie’s lab with an old laptop she owned that she thought he could fix up; she didn’t catch Raph wrinkling his snout as she walked by. He put down his magazine to watch her walk past, smelling something strong and unpleasant in the air. Raph however, didn’t say anything, since April left too quick for him to work up a problem about it.

Donnie was working, as he always was, on a project in the lab when April entered.

“Hey Donnie, how’s the experiment going?” April asked, sliding her bag onto an empty table not far from the mutant.

“Mmm, it’s going,” Donnie muttered, dropping a tear of mutagen into a dish of liquid. The chemicals sizzled against the glass, leaving burn marks as it evaporated. “I’m checking what reacts negatively versus positively with mutagen, in case there’s potential for an explosion.”

“Can I see?” April asked, walking over to look at the turtle’s notes. Donnie shifted a little to the side, letting April get close to the table and beakers. He enjoyed the moment of having April so close to him, up till her perfume hit his senses and he slapped a hand over his snout; stepping backwards as quickly as possible. April looked up from examining the chemical formula and quirked an eyebrow. “Why’re you all the way over there Donnie?”

“Why do you smell like that??” Donnie said, adding another hand to his face and muffling his voice. “It’s _awful_.”

April sniffed her arm, just the peach smell still. “Do you mean my perfume?”

“That’s perfume? I’m sorry April, but that smells really bad to me,” Donnie took his hands away from his face, grimacing. “It’s like… someone punched me with the smell of chemicals.”

“It’s supposed to smell like peaches.”

“It really, really doesn't,” Donnie said, shaking his head. “Do you think you could, um, possibly wash some of it off? It's really over powering for me. I mean, it's probably really nice smelling to, ah, humans and such, but it's already giving me a bit of a head ache so-”

“It's fine Donnie, I understand,” April said, heading back to her bag. When she turned back around, Donnie was wringing his hands and glancing nervously at her. “I'm not offended, don't worry. I only put the stuff on because the sewers are overpowering to _me_. I’ll remember to keep it to a minimum next time.”

“Thanks,” Donnie replied, smiling awkwardly.

April shrugged her bag onto her shoulder, placing a hand on the strap to keep it still. “I've got it all over my clothes right now; again I’m really sorry about that, and no spares. I'll have to go home and change unless I want to nose blind your brothers too.”

“That'd be for the best, and I’m sorry too for what it's worth,” Donnie said, touching his sensitive snout again. “Synthetic smells are really unpleasant for us, especially when they're so concentrated. Our sense of smell is too highly developed to handle it.”

“But the smell of sewer doesn't bother you?” April asked, quirking a smile.

“Ha, after a life time down here, we're pretty used to that,” Donnie chuckled, following April to the door of the lab. “You'll be coming back, right? I know it's a bit of hike there and back from your place, but I'd-I mean we'd still love it if you'd come over for the evening.”

“I'll be back, and it's not super far; just a short bus ride,” April said as they walked across the lair.

“I'll see you later then!” Donnie said cheerfully as April climbed the steps out of the lair. April waved to him once before heading back out into the tunnels.

 

 

 

April wasn't the only human to make the mistake of wearing perfume around the turtles. Casey did too, multiple times.

After a long hockey practice earlier in the evening, Casey had skipped showering and just sprayed on some Axe to cover the smell. He was going out on patrol that night anyways, no sense in showering before then.

Raph however, when Casey got to lair and challenged him to a (mostly) friendly wrestling fight before patrol, took one whiff of his friend and shoved him as far away possible. “Jesus Christ Jones, the hell are you wearing? You smell like the fume hood in Don's lab.”

“What? It's just cologne dude, nothin' that I haven't used before,” Casey took a sniff of his sleeve; yep, same old smells of sweat, Axe, and whatever he'd had for lunch that day. “Don't smell any different than usual.”

“Yeah, and how much of that cologne did you spray on yourself?” Raph grouched, stepping further away from Casey. “'Cause from where I’m standin', you'd think it was the whole can.”

“Whatever dude, you might not like it, but the ladies sure do,” Casey struck a pose, flexing his arms. Raph gagged, from the smell and his friend's idiocy.

“No they don't, not when you smell like you've bathed in the stuff!” April called from her position on the couch, Donnie's laptop settled on both of their knees. She and Donnie had been poring over decrypted files from a Kraang transmission they'd intercepted.

“Take a bath before you come over here Jones,” Donnie added, not looking up from his laptop. “It smells bad enough as is, what with Raph not showering for the last four days.”

“I smell fine, Donnie.”

“That right there, that was a lie. Your senses are blind from overexposure, and there for unreliable informants,” Donnie said, briefly looking up from his work. “Both of you should take a damn shower, if not for yourselves, then for the good of this family.”

“I won't, but _he_ will if he wants in on tonight's raid,” Raph said, jerking a thumb at Casey.

“Man, whatever, none of you appreciates the fine scent of manliness.”

“ _Bath_ , Casey,” April said firmly, pointing down the hall towards the washroom.

Casey went, but not without a long string of grumbled insults following his progress towards the tub.

 

 

 

Months later, Mikey catches a difference in April's usual smell, and discreetly pleads Casey to get him chocolate bars from the convenience store in town; promising he'd pay the human back whenever they got back to New York, and the free reign of the remote that night.

As soon as Mikey had the chocolate in his hands, he went to find April, who was in the kitchen checking over their food supplies once again.

“Whatcha doin'?” He asked, carefully keeping the chocolate out of sight as he leaned over her shoulder into the fridge.

“Figuring out what's spoiled and what's still good,” April said absentmindedly, sniffing a bowl of left over soup.

Mikey took a whiff, and shook his head. “Something in that one's no good, toss it brah.”

“You sure? It smells fine to me,” April said, taking a long sniff.

“Trust the turtle senses April, they're a tingling,” Mikey said sagely, plucking the bowl from her hands and bringing it to the sink. “And shouldn't you be resting right now?”

“Uh, why would I be resting?” April asked, sending him a confused look.

“Cause you’re on your special time right now, an' no lady should be forced to work when she's got that happen',” Mikey said, dropping the bowl into the sink carefully. He turned around a flashed the three chocolate bars from his belt, grinning happily. “And that's why I got these for you! 'Cause a long time ago you guys said candy makes it easier!”

April opened her mouth, shut it, and then shook her head. “How did you know I’m on my period? I didn't tell anyone that.”

“I can smell it, duh, just like everyone else can,” Mikey walked over and sat next to April on the floor in front of the fridge. “Well, maybe not Casey, but me an' my bros can.”

April flushed, cheeks coloring bright red. “Oh god, all of you can tell? Every time??”

Mikey frowned slightly, he hadn't meant to make her upset. It was normal right? For girls and people with those organs to have menus... meanus... periods?

“Don't be embarrassed, it's just normal stuff right? And besides, chocolate!” Mikey shoved the candies into her hands. “I mean the first time I smelt it on you, I, uh, might'a freaked out a little 'cause I thought you were hurt or somethin'. But Dee explained it to me, so it's all good now.”

April looked at the candy bars in her hands, red still around her ears. “I didn't know you guys could smell that well. I mean, I knew you can better than humans, but I didn't think it'd be that powerful.”

“Mmm, yeah, sorry if that makes you uncomfortable,” Mikey starting to feel like he shouldn't have brought it up at all. “We're supposed to be able to smell pheromones right? Donnie explained that a long time ago, about our uh,” He made quotation gestures with his hands. “‘Reproductive instincts'. Gross, I know. But it's to find lady turtles or somethin', so we got good noses. Um, sorry I brought it up. I just wanted to make you feel better 'cause Dee said it hurts a lot when it's happening for you, and you've been working really hard around the house lately.”

April shook her head, a fond smile creeping onto her face. “It's fine, you had good intentions. And I’m just a little embarrassed, since most people really don't like talking about feminine bleeding.”

“It's cool,” Mikey said, patting her on the back. “Just let us know whenever you need a break or somethin', no need to push yourself when you’re low on blood supply.”

“That's not really how it works, but thanks Mikey,” April said, smiling and patting his shell. “I appreciate the candy. Want to split them while I finish the fridge cleaning?”

“Heck yeah!” Mikey exclaimed. “Gimme one of those guys and I’ll even help sort the food!”

“Deal,” April replied, handing over the Hershey bar.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like these are getting less informative, more story like.
> 
> Is that a good thing? I think it is, but I don't know for sure.
> 
> Uuuuhhh... I don't have a whole lot say this time round, other than I've got two other tmnt fics recently published. One, that's going to last for a long time coming, Division Difference; which is an AU where the kids are separated when they're all little, and Donnie and Mikey grow up alone in the sewers. Lots of tension, which I'm having fun with.
> 
> The other is a capritello fic, called Just The Beginning. Mostly, three kids with budding feelings and the inability to talk about it. Sweet and short, it's a one shot I wrote for the flashfic event on tumblr. Let me know how I did with it, I don't write romances often.
> 
> So yeah, that's about it.
> 
> Thanks for dropping by, sorry for the wait!


	18. Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this? An original idea from just me? Wow, that hasn't happened in a while.
> 
> Ha, I haven't bothered to think up any of my own prompts in a while; you're all so great with them, none of my own compared!
> 
> Sorry for not updating, I hadn't been able to think of anything to do with the prompts I had until I thought up this one!

 

A routine mission, just taking care of some small fry Purple Dragons who thought they could set up shop inside the brothers' territory. An easy fight, almost laughable when compared to some of more recent ones with the Shredder.

It came with an un-expected bonus.

“GuysguysguysguysGUYS!!!” Mikey shouted from inside the back of the van they'd trashed. He jumped out, arms full up to his neck. “LOOK AT THIS!”

He was holding about twenty jumbo bags of assorted chips.

“AND THERE'S MORE INSIDE,” He exclaimed, still at the top of his voice.

“Seriously?” Raph said, peering inside the open doors. Inside were big boxes, all labeled with brand name and off brand name chips. “Holy shit, he's right!”

“Oh wow, why would they have this many bags of chips?” Leo asked, picking up one of the bags Mikey dropped in his happy dance.

“Who cares?! Free snacks!” Mikey exclaimed happily. He paused his dance for a moment, glancing at Leo. “...we're taking them, right Leo?”

Leo looked at the inside of the van again, counting up the boxes and loose bags. He looked down at the bag of ripple classic chips in his hands, and weighed what was morally right and what they as ninjas were entitled to do. And, how much he and his brothers enjoyed salty junk food.

“Well, it’s not like they'll be needing them now,” Leo said finally, Mikey echoing with a whoop.

“If we're looting these guys...” Donnie walked around to the front of the van, popping the engine's lid. “I might as well take some parts for the Shellraiser. Throw me that tool box I saw in the back there, Raph.”

“We'll start getting this stuff underground, take your time!” Mikey said, shoving chip bags back into boxes to start unloading.

It took an extra hour of doubling back over and over to haul the boxes down to the lair, but the brothers' kitchen was filled with cardboard containers with sodium rich treats by the time they're due for end of the night meditation.

_Consume these snacks wisely,_ was what their Sensei said when they showed him their haul, _in moderation and only when once you’ve eaten healthier foods first._

What teenager would listen to that advice though?

 

 

 

Casey comes into the lair a week after the turtles found the hoard of chips, hockey stick clacking against the ground as he entered. He was in a particularly good mood since he was looking forwards to snagging another bag of chips off his buddies.

He finds three of those buddies sitting outside Donnie’s lab doors passing tissues back and forth.

“Raph, dude, why you all crying?” Casey asked, wrinkling his brow in confusion and mild horror at seeing his unshakable friend with tears streaming down his face. He adjusted his grip on his stick, eyeing the shut door of the lab with unease. “…something bad happen?”

“No!” Raph hissed angrily. “Nothing fucking happened! And I’m not crying, my fucking tear ducts just won’t stop fucking leaking!!”

“S’what crying is brah,” Mikey said, wiping another tissue across his bare face. None of the turtles were wearing their masks at the moment, instead leaving them hung around their necks.

“Shut up! I don’t cry!”

“You cried over Bambi’s mom dying just last week,” Leo said in a tired voice, scrubbing at his own tears.

“I had somethin’ in my eye!”

_“SHUT UP! I’M WORKING!”_ Donnie hollered in his tone of _‘I’m-stressed-and-haven’t-slept-once-in-the-last-two-or-three-days’_ through the still shut doors.

Leo sighed, his head thunking against the doors. “Short version of things, we started crying last night and haven’t stopped since then. Nothing triggered it; it just happened to us one after another. Raph was the first one.”

“Which is whhhhy… he’s embarrassed~,” Mikey said with a smirk. He avoided Raph’s retaliation by using Leo as a shield as Raph grabbed for his younger brother’s teasing expression across his elder brother’s lap.

“ _Anyways_ ,” Leo said firmly, shoving Raph and Mikey off of him. “Donnie’s working on figuring it out before we cry ourselves into dehydration.”

“Not crying,” Raph muttered, smearing another tear into oblivion.

“You keep tellin’ yourself that,” Casey said, smirking down at his friend. Raph scowled at him, kicking out one leg to catch Casey in the shin. Casey dodged away laughing, before sitting down in front of the three brothers. “Think its life threatening? Or like, a sneak attack from micro soldiers sent by Stockman to destroy you from the inside?”

“That’s what I was thinking!” Mikey said with a huff. “But no one believes me. They’re waiting for Dee to _science_ out the answer.”

“You guys stole that from a _Space Heroes_ episode,” Leo said, elbowing Mikey. “And besides, there were no tears involved when Captain Ryan was infected with the microscopic nanites from Omega-34, so there’s no way this is the same thing.”

“Y’know, that and it’s from a _cartoon_ ,” Raph grabbed another handful of tissues from the box between him and Leo. “Holy fuck my head hurts. Donnie better fix this soon or I’m gonna put me outta my misery _myself_.”

Mikey picked up the open bag of ketchup chips beside him and hugged the crinkling aluminum to his plastron. “At least I have you to comfort me, oh snack of the gods.”

“Hey gimme some of that, I’ve been craving all day,” Casey reached for the bag, but Mikey curled around it and somersaulted away.

“Go get your own! I’ve been working on this one a whole ten minutes!” Mikey shoved a handful into his mouth, getting reddish crumbs all over his still tear tracked face. He choked on it though; when Donnie’s enraged shriek rang through the lair.

Donnie slammed the sliding doors open, dislodging his two elder brothers. His wide, blood shot eyes locked onto Mikey and his chip bag. Donnie darted forwards, slapping the bag away from Mikey’s hands. “DON’T EAT THAT!!”

“What the fuck, Don?” Raph said, getting up from the stone floor and glaring at his brother. “We weren’t even being that loud!”

“It was. The _salt_ ,” Donnie hissed, looking frazzled and annoyed beyond words. “It’s those god forsaken _chips_ that’s making us cry! I didn’t sleep for the last forty-eight hours because _we ate too much salt._ ”

“Uh,” Casey looked at the bag of chips spilled across the floor. “You ate a bunch of junk food, and it made you cry for two days straight? What??”

Donnie dragged his hands down his face, gritting the words out. “We’re turtles, we aren’t meant to have that much salt in our systems, and we can’t sweat it out like humans, so, of course, we _cry_ it out. I spent the last twelve hours comparing our DNA swabs to each other and searching for hidden poisons or infected cells or, god forbid, _microscopic robot soldiers from space_ , and all I had to do was _check fucking Wikipedia_.”

Donnie took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. He let his hands drop away from his face, exposing his expression of ‘ _I’m-done-with-everything’_. “I’m going to go pass out now, thanks. Casey, you can have my share of the chips.”

“Oh, sweet,” Casey replied to Donnie’s retreating shell. Donnie waved a single uncaring hand as he skulked away, a cloud of angry mutterings following his progression.

“I can’t fucking believe this,” Raph grumbled. He threw his hands up and stormed away to his own room. “Yeah, g’night everyone, I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m done with this bullshit.”

Mikey was still sitting beside his scattered snack, tears continuing to drip onto the floor. He looked up at Leo, who was collecting the discarded tissues they’d left around the door, and Mikey’s lip wobbled. “How could they betray me like that? My favorite snack, _ruined_ forever!”

“Pizza’s your favorite snack, Mikey,” Leo reminded his sibling, wadding tissues together with both hands.

“ _No_ , that’s a _meal_ Leo, jeeze. Chips are snacks!”

“Yeah, speaking of, I’mma go grab some of those,” Casey said, getting off the floor and heading for the kitchen. “Glad you guys aren’t dying, always good to hear!”

Leo sighed, wiping another bit of moisture from his eyes as he added the mostly empty tissue boxes to his arm full of bio-degradable refuse.

They really should have listened to their Sensei’s advice.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I found a 'Did You Know' post on tumblr about turtles in the amazon crying to relieve salt levels in their bodies and couldn't resist writing this. Probably wouldn't happen in canon, or even Anatomy canon really, but c'mon; too funny to not write.
> 
> So yeah, currently, I don't have any other prompts that I could use in this fic. The ones I do have are too abstract to think of anything for.  
> If you've got an idea, hit me up! Otherwise, it might be time to finally bring Anatomy to a close.
> 
> And has anyone seen where this fic is located on the highest to lowest list for TMNT fics? I'm just below the top page, just another ten or so to go! Holy mackerel, I know I wanted to get this far, but a part of me didn't think I actually would!
> 
> It's all due to you readers, thank you so much for supporting my writing!


	19. Hands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy howdy do I hate my muse. She's wily af and won't cooperate with what I want to write.
> 
> Apologies to everyone who waited so patiently, it's been so chaotic at home lately that I've barely had time to think.
> 
> Please forgive me. （ ；´Д｀）

Leo delicately dipped the brush back into the ink, the onyx spreading up from the tip. Careful not to drip on the floor, Leo moved the brush over the paper he’d set out in front of him.

He’d watched his dad do this earlier, painting thick lines that trailed off into wisps to create bold kanji; the newest portrait of calligraphy was hung on the dojo wall, exclaiming _‘Endurance’_ to everyone in their home.

Leo wanted to do that too; to make graceful words appear from the ink, and impress his father with how closely he’d paid attention.

Leo gently pressed the brush tip to the paper, and started to draw it into the first line of _‘Diligence’,_ but the ink went the wrong way and the elegant swoop he’d meant to appear… didn’t.

The small turtle frowned, but tried again with the next stroke.

Same result.

Wrong, wrong, _wrong_. The kanji didn’t even look like a kanji; it just looked like a mess of black smears on the stark paper.

Leo’s three fingers fumbled around the brush, dripping ink onto his knees. He lost grip on the handle, and the brush fell onto the already soaked paper; creating an ugly looking impact splash.

Leo’s lips screwed up in a pout; why was this so hard, his father had made it look easy.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Leo picked back up the brush and crumpled up the useless paper. He’d just do it again; and this time, he’d get it right.

 

Splinter’s staff clicked rhythmically on the stones of his home, echoing off the walls as he made his way across the main room. It seemed his children were occupied by quiet things today, and he would get an afternoon of peace. A rare thing indeed, when raising quadruplets only seven years of age.

The sound of ripping paper and a frustrated cry broke the silence of the lair, and Splinter sighed. Who would it be this time; Raphael fighting with Mikey over a sketch pad, or had Donatello perhaps ripped another one of his books?

Splinter made his way over to their family dojo, his sensitive ears picking up rustling papers and stifled cries. Opening the sliding door, Splinter found the son he did not expect surrounded by discarded papers and smeared with ink.

Leonardo’s head whipped around; panicked guilt written all over his young features. Splinter’s salvaged calligraphy set lay out beside his son, ink bottle half empty and its supply of artist’s paper grossly depleted.

Leonardo held the brush awkwardly in his three fingers, dripping more ink onto his scales as he shrunk down on himself.

 _“What is all this, Leonardo?”_ Splinter asked in smooth Japanese as he stepped over to his eldest. Leonardo curled further into himself and didn’t answer, but Splinter put two and two together when he saw the messy kanji attempt on the paper.

Splinter swept some of the crumpled balls of paper aside with his tail, and knelt beside his son. Leonardo looked away from his father’s gaze, clutching the paint brush near himself despite the dripping ink.

Splinter waited patiently for Leonardo to speak, and eventually, his son did.

 _“I’m sorry, Otousan,”_ Leonardo said, shame evident on his face. Tears gathered on his eyelids, and Splinter reached out to brush them away. Leonardo leaned into Splinter’s soft touch, some of the tension leaving his small body. _“I just wanted to do what you did, ‘cause I wanted you to be proud. But my stupid fingers won’t hold the brush right, an’ I keep messing up.”_

Splinter looked around them both, the scattered papers and dribbles of ink on the carpet. _“It seems you did indeed, ‘mess up’. And you have also used quite a lot of my painting supplies.”_

 _“Sorry,”_ Leonardo mumbled, leaning his forehead onto his knees. _“Didn’t mean to.”_

Splinter sighed inwardly, because while he supported his child’s interest in art, it had taken many months to amass so much paper. The ink was easily replaceable, but good paper was rarely thrown away.

 _“Ah well, what’s done is done,”_ Splinter mused, picking up the ink bottle and capping it. Leonardo’s eyes followed him, watching his father begin cleaning up the mess. _“Though, I wish you had come to me first; for both permission and instruction.”_

 _“I wanted to surprise you,”_ Leonardo explained sullenly, finally uncurling enough to give the paint brush back to Splinter. The bristles were slightly bent, most likely from frustrated strokes, but it seemed only a little worse for wear. _“Guess I should’a. I just made a big dumb mess ‘cause I can’t even hold a brush right.”_

Splinter glanced down at his eldest, who was covered in smears of dried and drying ink, and came to a solution for his son’s melancholy.

 _“When I was first mutated, I had trouble as well with calligraphy,”_ Splinter said, making Leonardo head pop back up from his slouch. Splinter removed the used paper from the board, and replaced it with another as he spoke. _“For months after, I struggled with many tasks. Even holding chopsticks was difficult for me, despite having used them my whole life.”_

Splinter dipped the brush into the ink newly reopened bottle, and smoothly began writing out _‘Family’_. Leonardo shuffled closer to his father’s side as Splinter drew black strokes across the paper. _“It was only with practice and patience that I was able to regain my former dexterity. If you continue your practice, Leonardo, one day you too shall be a master of this art.”_

Splinter completed the final turn of the brush, and then lifted it from the paper. Leonardo’s wide eyes, no longer filled with tears, shone with curiosity and determination as he looked at the still wet paper. Splinter smiled, and wrapped an arm around his son’s shoulder. _“Though, next time you attempt this, please come and ask me first. We do not have enough supplies to go about this without care.”_

 _“Yes Otousan,”_ Leonardo replied, smiling abashedly. His eyes darted back to the brush held between Splinter’s lithe fingers, and he twitched his thicker ones. _“But what about my hands? I don’t have as many fingers.”_

 _“Like I said,”_ Splinter took Leonardo’s hand, and curled his green fingers around it. _“Practice and patience. You must find a way to hold this brush that feels natural to you, not copy how I hold mine.”_

Leonardo looked doubtfully at his hands, but nodded.

_“Now, if you would not mind, my son; I would like it if you cleaned up this mess you’ve made.”_

Leonardo winced, and nodded again. _“Yes Otousan, right away.”_

 

 

 

Donnie cursed, using a string of words his Sensei would have scolded him for. His tense grip on the tweezers had slipped, and now his experiment was ruined. Too much added substance, it unbalanced the whole formula. He’d have to scrap it. _Again_.

All he wanted was to produce a strain of E.coli that glowed in the dark, was that too much to ask?

Donnie picked up the ruined petri dish and dumped it into the discard box, the plastic dish rattling against the other five already inside it. He’d get to cleaning those dangerously contaminated experiments later. If he remembered.

Donnie leaned his head into his hands, groaning with frustration. He couldn’t keep his hands steady enough that he didn’t mess up one experiment or another. He’d already burned himself with chemicals twice that week, and shocked himself on wires another five.

Donnie looked around his lab, only two years’ worth of equipment installed. Absentmindedly, he wished he had access to all the fancy technology other thirteen year old geniuses got.

But he couldn’t of course, because he was a mutant turtle living in the sewers.

Donnie leaned back, and splayed his hands out in front of him. Callouses from martial arts, healing burns, and scarred nicks in his scales, all set against the background of his green skin.

In his mind, Donnie pictured the five fingered scientists he read about in his textbooks. Their human hands so delicate and precise with the control of tools, they contrasted starkly with Donnie’s thick and clumsy feeling hands.

It wasn’t fair. Even with all his practice and concentration, all it took was one slip for Donnie to screw up again and again. He was just as smart, if not smarter, than all those human scientists; but he still couldn’t hold a simple pair of tweezers without applying too much or too little pressure.

Two knuckles, two fingers, a single thumb, both pairs of them big, green, and frustrating. That’s what his hands amounted to.

Donnie could be just as careful, just as delicate as those humans; but some days… some days he just couldn’t.

Which was ridiculous, because why would one day be any different from the last? He should be just as functional as every other time he did this. It was illogical and plain stupid.

Donnie clenched his hands so tightly it hurt; venting his anger silently and only aiming it at himself. He glared at his hands, full of hatred and malcontent for something he couldn’t help.

It wasn’t fair, it would _never_ be fair. Even a thousand new experiments down the road, Donnie would still have the same problem. He couldn’t change the reptilian nature of himself, and he couldn’t change the fact that he needed two to three times the concentration of a human to use tweezers.

For all his brains, Donnie couldn’t make himself human; no matter how much he wished.

Donnie sighed, releasing his fists and slumping onto his work table. Thinking on those things never helped him, because it just stirred up the wasp nest of thoughts tied to the subject. The things he wanted, dreamed of, and could never have; they all centered on his secret desire to be human.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like being a turtle, because he did; that’s what he was, _who_ he was. His brothers were turtles, and their father a rat, and Donnie wouldn’t have asked any of them to change.

He just… sometimes wanted more. More than the refuse tech of humanity, more than halfway useless parts; Donnie wanted to try working with something _new_ for once, and not someone else’s garbage.

He could do that if he were human.

But he wasn’t, he was a genetic dead-end created by accident; and that wasn’t ever going to change.

Donnie shook his head, burying those thoughts back under his current mantra of chemical formula. Letting those thoughts circle too long put him into moods that were hard to shake; he had a limited time opportunity to make use of relatively fresh supplies and he wasn’t going to waste it.

Donnie retrieved a fresh set of equipment from the package, and got up to get another E.coli sample from his fridge.

He’d keep working on his finer control; mutant DNA or not, nothing would stop him. There was too much to learn, to find, to discover for him to be bogged down by personal negativities.

Three finger limitations be damned, he’d accomplish his goals anyways. The world would never know it, but Donnie was going to be the most brilliant scientist in any field ever.

He just had to learn how to hold tweezers correctly first.

 

 

 

 

(Further down the road, Leo paints with perfect technique, kanji flowing from his brush tip one after another. His hands are steady, and the brush fits neatly in his grip.

His very first completed and legible work, a sloppy looking thing, hangs on the back of his door.

It’s the same as one that first inspired him to learn calligraphy, _‘Endurance’_.

He’s proud of it, despite the off-ness of the strokes.

 

Donnie multitasks three projects at once, not missing a beat between the soldering iron, eye dropper, and wire cutters.

He shifts between each one just as quickly as his train of thought, his well-practiced hands precise and controlled in each movement.

The moment of doubt, long ago at thirteen, doesn’t exist anymore; not when he has so much alien technology to reverse engineer.

 

If either brother remembers those moments of frustration and hate for their own hands, they won’t say. Because there are much more important things to think about than the number of fingers they’ve got.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm absolute rubbish lately about coming up with Anat drabbles, I'm so distracted by my other fictions. I gotta apologize for that, because I love this fic despite my fading inspiration.
> 
> I suppose it has to with the fact that I'm more inclined of late to have interest in long arcing stories, rather than my collection of drabbles here. Though this has been going on for long enough it might count as such. (ﾉ*ﾟｰﾟ)ﾉ
> 
> Oh and jeeze louise, I'm not only on the first page of results, but I'll probably break 200 kudos with this chapter! What the heck! I didn't have time or inspiration to write when it happened, but when I figured out just how popular this'd gotten I just about lost my composure. (✧ ∇ ✧)
> 
> Good thing I was at home that moment, otherwise I would've looked completely crackers to the people around me!
> 
> I'd like to take a mo' to thank you all for contributing to this fic, I never would have gotten so far without your help! Your collective prompts, encouragement, and comments pushed me to be a better writer, and I'll never be able to express properly how glad I am you did.
> 
> Here's to all the folks who helped me along the way, this was a group effort really! Cheers loves! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧


	20. Eyes part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A special April chapter, in honor of a new tid bit I saw in the show.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can officially say that the Anat 'verse has Capritello as the main pairing, bc this chapter is literally nothing but that.  
> Ha, so, this was inspired bc I found a post about April having sneaky ninja eyes in CANON now.  
> And you know me, gotta hope on that and make it as painful as possible.
> 
> Yeah, so enjoy this ficlet, since I enjoyed writing it so much. It's my new fave.

 

You’d think that with everything that she’d seen, done, and experienced… April wouldn’t have been so thrown by the new bit of anatomy her body had developed.

It wasn’t like she was an untrained and scared little girl anymore; she’d been to the other side of the galaxy and back, she’d saved the earth three times over, and she had recently been initiated to full status as a kunoichi. A family of mutants had all but adopted her into their lair, and spent the last few years making her one of their own. She was dating not one, but _two_ exceedingly odd people; one of them a bizarre and erratic creature, and the other a mutant turtle.

April O’Neil was not a stranger to the strange; she practically lived and breathed it.

But, this didn’t stop her from having a minor panic attack when she realized she had more than one set of eyelids.

April pressed a hand against her chest, trying to find and remove the source of the increasing tightness there as she stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. Her breathing had turned to panting, and she felt like she was trying to breathe underwater.

Alright, so maybe the panic attack wasn’t a minor one. Maybe she was having a full blown attack of anxiety and maybe, just maybe, she was freaking the fuck out.

In morbid experimentation, just to check a fourth time, April triggered the newly discovered muscle reflex around her wide eyes.

The secondary white eyelids slid once again across her sclera, hiding her irises from sight with blank ivory.

April’s grip on the bathroom counter increased, and she absently felt her palm beginning to really hurt under the pressure.

Her other hand scrunched her night shirt, fisting it as her panic climbed.

“Shit,” April said hoarsely, staring at her eyes in the mirror, but unable to make eye contact with herself. _“Shit.”_

 

 

 

Donnie was the one who her, April having curled up against the wall of her pleasantly bright bathroom. She hadn’t been able to leave the room, couldn’t force herself to step back out into her apartment and face to people waiting for her return.

“April? Hey, are you alright?” Donnie asked softly as he stepped into the room, bare feet padding on the linoleum next to April. He knelt down, and curled on himself so his eyes were level with her’s. “You’ve been gone for at least twenty minutes, Casey and I got worried. What’s wrong?”

April shook her head, unable to make her voice work. She blinked her dry eyes, and shuddered, because now that she knew they were there, she could _feel_ the second eyelids just underneath her old ones every time she blinked.

Donnie’s cool hand settled on April’s shoulder, and his smooth palm scales brought her further back to the present. She finally stopped staring without focus at the sink cupboard in front of her, and met his eyes. Donnie’s red irises were filled with concern, and that finally gave April enough push to force her throat to unconstrict.

“Something… something’s wrong with me,” April whispered, not trusting her voice to stay steady if she raised it.

Donnie frowned, and brushed a bit of loose hair from her face. “What do you mean, ‘wrong with you’? Did you hurt something during patrol and not notice?”

April shook her head, tightening her arms around her legs. “It’s not that.”

“Then what is it? You’re scaring me April, can you please tell me what’s wr- I’m mean, what’s bothering you?” Donnie asked, eyes searching April’s body for tell of what was happening.

April swallowed nervously, and blinked, leaving her eyes covered and yet still being able to see.

Donnie’s mouth dropped open, and he stared at April. He licked his lips, clearly fumbling for his words.

“Whoa,” He said in a hushed voice after a long moment.

“Yeah, I know. Freaky, right?” April said bitterly, rubbing at her eyes. God, she couldn’t stop feeling the new additions to her body anymore, the awareness stuck at the front of her mind. April pressed her palms over her eyes, and took a shuddering breath. “I don’t know what’s happening Donnie, th-they were just _there_ all of a sudden, and I don’t know where they came from and god, what if there’s _more_ changes I haven’t seen and- and-”

April broke off, biting her lip and fighting the prickling behind her eyelids.

“Hey, hey, shhh,” April felt Donnie’s arm wrap around her curled shoulders, pulling her against his plastron. “We’ll figure this out, you’re alright, please don’t cry April, it’s fine, we’re both fine-”

“I’m not fine Donnie, _none_ of this is fine,” April wrapped her arms around Donnie, hugging tightly as she tried to control her re-emerging panic. “I’ve- we’ve all know, f-for months that I’m not fully human, but this- what if this is… I don’t know, a-a jump start of my mutations or something. What it keeps going and going until…”

_Until I don’t look human anymore_ , she didn’t finish saying, but April knew Donnie understood what she meant anyways.

Donnie’s large hand rubbed up and down her spine, and despite her fears, April started to calm down again. She could feel Donnie’s voice through his plastron as he spoke, the vibrations familiar and grounding. “…we should go down to the lair, let me have a good look under the microscope about what’s happening with your DNA. Is that alright?”

April nodded, her loose hair falling over her face as she did. Donnie didn’t move again until April sat up, keeping his cold but comforting arms around her until she was ready.

 

 

 

“You’re sure it’s the only thing? You’ve checked everywhere?” Casey asked April later on, sitting with her in Donnie’s lab as their partner puttered around with slides and samples.

April nodded, the hair she still hadn’t tied back up mussing against Casey’s shoulder. It was very late in the night, almost three AM, and her mutated eyes felt heavy. Not as heavy as her dread though. “I looked everywhere, yeah. Best I can tell? My eyelids are the only mutation that’s happened so far.”

Casey squeezed her hand; his rough callouses scratching against April’s own. “You alright, red? I’m guessin’ this is…”

“Unnerving? Confusing? Scary?” April offered, watching Donnie across the lab as he compared different microscopic slides.

“Somethin’ like that, yeah.”

“No, I’m not alright, Casey. I’m terrified,” April said softly, feeling like she’d lost control of her life all over again; just like every time she came into contact with a new mutant. Of course, this time, the new mutant was her own body. “You’ve. You’ve _seen_ what mutations can do to a person. What if that happens to me? It sounds vain and awful, but… what if this makes me ugly? What if whatever my body is doing right now… changes me so much no one can tell I’m _me_ anymore?”

“Hey, lookit me, April,” Casey leaned away from her, and April met his eyes even if she didn’t want to. Casey had one of his most stubborn expressions on, like he was daring her to fight him. “I’m always gonna know it’s you, no matter what, ‘kay?  Mutations won’t change that, April, I can promise you that at least.”

April’s eyes welled, and she wished she shared the faith that Casey had in her, in _them_.

Her new eyelids slid across her damp eyes, and in that action, triggered April into letting the tears escape down her cheek.

April hid her face in Casey’s hoodie covered shoulder, and rode out the wave of gratefulness and dread.

 

 

 

April forced her hands to remain unclenched on top of her knees, making herself ready for whatever results Donnie had to report. Casey leaned on the table beside her, eyes darting between April and their mutual partner.

“Well? What did you find?” April asked, despite her fear of the answer.

Donnie looked tired and was fidgeting with the papers he’d laid out. He had sheets of hastily scribbled notes beside the ones he’d created back when they’d all first discovered her in-human DNA. The original notes were much neater, stapled together and organized, while the new ones were lopsided in places and spread across the table top.

Donnie shuffled the one with the least amount of writing to the top of the pile, putting it beside the final results from the first examinations they’d done. “The good news? There are no new levels of mutant DNA in your genome, and as far as I’ve been able to assess, this isn’t because of an outside contaminant. No mutagen or anything. You check out to be about as healthy as you can be, maybe even more so. And, uh, that might be something that you could consider as the bad news I suppose.”

“How does April bein’ healthier than the norm come out as a bad thing?” Casey asked, peering at the notes on the table between them all. “Isn’t that a good thing, for her to be fit and healthy an’ stuff?”

April reached out and slid the notes closer to her, checking both results. Normal. She was completely normal, for her at least. Excluding a few minor differences, nothing was different between her a year ago and her now. “My red blood cell count is up, but that’s the only difference I see here.”

“Ah, but that’s only the physical side of things, I took into consideration your mentality as well,” Donnie shifted another set of notes from the pile to be placed over the first two sheets. “See here? I counted up everything that’s been happening to us until recently and based on my personal experiences with you before and after we restored earth… I theorize that your, um, new additions have mostly to do with the fact that you finally feel safe again. Also late growth spurts.”

April looked up from the notes, confused by what Donnie had just said. “What do you mean by that? Because I-I feel _safe_ , my body is deciding to mutate?”

“Well, that’s a bit oversimplified-”

“Then give me the _complicated_ version,” April said, impatience starting to build. She didn’t want Donnie to spare her feelings right now, she wanted to know if she was going to start growing extra limbs or not.

“Sorry,” Donnie said sheepishly, drawing all the notes back to himself. “So essentially what’s happened, um, is that because you’re finally in a space where you not only feel safe, but also can receive the right levels of nutrition and rest, your final growth spurt has come in. I’ve noticed in the last few weeks, you’ve grown a few millimeters. I didn’t say anything because, well, I didn’t think it mattered. But I guess the article I read about teens getting sudden extra growth, after finding a safe place to settle down, is true.”

April shook her head, clenching her hands on top of the icy table and letting her nails bite into her skin. “I don’t get it. I’m mutating because of a growth spurt? How far does this go? How far _will_ it go?”

“I… I don’t know. I’m sorry. It might stop with just the eyelids, it might keep going,” Donnie admitted softly. “If it’s any comfort? I don’t think it will. Mutations happen quickly and suddenly, and it’s been weeks since we came home. If something was going to happen, it would’ve already.”

“Then how do you explain _these?!”_ April snapped, shutting her white eyelids and glaring at Donnie. “If nothing is supposed to be happening, why do I have second fucking _eyelids?_ What- what am I supposed to make of that? Am I supposed to just accept that I’ve got these freaky things now, and there’s a chance more could happen?”

“I-I’m sorry April, I can’t do anything,” Donnie said, quailing under April’s whitened gaze. “It’s not a mutation caused by mutagen, I can’t undo it.”

“So I’m stuck with this? And whatever the hell happens later?” April demanded, fighting the cracking dam of her emotions. Donnie reached out for her shaking fists, but April yanked them back to herself. “Don’t touch me. I-I need a minute.”

April stood up so fast her stool screeched on the cement floor, and she whirled away from Donnie’s hurt expression and left both her boyfriends behind.

Or she tried to, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her. “Let go of me.”

“No thanks, I think it’d be better if I didn’t,” Casey replied, turning her around to face him. She glared at him, but Casey remained unaffected by her lidded gaze. “Look. I know you’re freakin’ out, but runnin’ away isn’t the answer right now. You and Donnie both do this when something goes wrong, and nothing ever gets solved like that. Come back and sit, alright? We can talk about this like adults an’ everything.”

“I don’t want to talk about it though, I want it to be gone and never mentioned again.”

“Yeah, but that’s not happening.”

“This whole situation shouldn’t be happening!” April exploded, throwing her hands out and gesturing as she ranted. “This some freak event that’s _yet again_ , happening to _me_ , and I can’t do anything to stop it! We’re finally home, and our families are alive, and we’re together after _months_ of dancing around it, and now _this?!_ I’m apparently not allowed to be happy or-or even okay feeling about myself, because _nope_ , let’s add another feature of fucking mutantness to April O’Neil, because she didn’t have enough of that already! I can move things with my _mind_ ; I’m an empath and a telekinetic for Christ sake! And now my brain isn’t only the weird thing about me, but also my god damn _body,_ in a highly exposed area where anyone and everyone can see! It’s not fair, okay?! I just want for once in my fucked up life for something to be alright, and _stay_ alright! _I don’t want to be a damn mutant anymore!_ ”

April’s voice broke at the end of her rant, and she bit her lip as hot tears spilled from her now opened eyes. “I just want to feel good about myself again, okay? I-I haven’t felt good about my body since I fell in that vat of mutagen. And it just got worse when we met that monster pretending to be my mom. I-I’m not _human_ , Casey, and I probably never was. And now everyone’ll see it.”

“…that doesn’t matter though, right? I mean, I _told_ you that already, I don’t care, _we_ don’t care-”

“It matters to me, _I_ care! I can’t go through life knowing I’ve got this freak mutation right where anyone could see it, who _knows_ what would happen if someone saw. You wouldn’t understand it Casey, you’re completely human!” April exclaimed in frustration, jabbing a finger at Casey’s chest.

“Maybe, but I think we both know someone who would get it pretty damn well,” Casey replied evenly, and April froze, remembering who was also in the room.

April’s focus moved from the human boy in front of her, to the mutant one standing a few feet from them both; awkwardly rubbing his arm and looking down at the floor. Donnie’s red eyes flickered up at her, and for some god forsaken _Donnie_ reason, he looked apologetic of his own presence.

April’s heart ached, and she regretted every word she’d said all evening. “Oh. Oh Donnie, I’m sorry- I’m so, so sorry.”

“It’s alright,” He replied, voice barely a whisper. “You’re upset right now, it’s understandable.”

“No, no it’s inexcusable, god-” April stepped around Casey and walked quickly over to Donnie, putting a tentative hand on his. “-I forget. I always forget.”

“Don’t see how you could, it’s kind of obvious,” Donnie said, chuckling in a self-deprecating manner.

“It’s not that, it-it’s never that. Donnie, I always forget because you’re just _you_ , and not some random mutant,” April slipped her thin fingers around his larger ones, blinking as more tears fell. “I just see you as someone I love, okay? Not anything else. Just you.”

“Then you’ve got to understand, that’s how we see _you_ ,” Donnie said, closing his hand on hers and grasping the other. “Like Casey said, new mutations or not, you’re still you. We love you, even if you aren’t human, and even if you don’t love yourself.”

“Don’t see how you could,” April mimicked back at Donnie, laughing once as her vision blurred.

Donnie shushed her, and leaned down to kiss April’s wet cheeks. His cool lips barely brushed her skin, but it was enough to set her off again. April leaned her forehead against Donnie’s, crying quietly as she could. “I’m sorry; I’m just so scared, I’m sorry _, I’m sorry-”_

Casey’s arms wrapped around her from behind, and his scratchy chin nestled on April’s neck; soft kisses pressed against her skin. Donnie’s arms were more than long enough to enclose them all together, and April let her boys surround her as she cried out her stress.

It wasn’t fair, it really, really wasn’t. But they loved her anyways; even with all her fears and mistakes.

 

 

 

April stared at herself in the bathroom mirror, familiarizing herself with the new sight before her.

White eyelids, just like the family that had taken her in. Just like someone who loved her.

She flicked them away, and then her irises were back and she was completely normal again.

Completely normal except she could _sense-hear-feel_ the minds and emotions of the people around her, separated from her house by their own; ordinary neighboring humans going about their morning. Normal, except that she theoretically knew how to break a man’s neck, and had not one, but two deadly weapons tucked safely away within easy reach in her room and school bag. Normal, except she held a family of mutants as some of the closest people to her heart.

Normal, except she wasn’t at all.

And that was okay, because that was just her.

April O’Neil, kunoichi, telepath and empath.

And mutant, as she’d come to accept.

She’d been so scared, but unconditional love and support has a habit of taking that away bit by bit. Now, she could look at herself in the mirror, and not think _‘Freak’_ , but instead think _‘Powerful’._

Donnie, way back when they’d first talked about it, had said that it was an evolutionary feature, their extra eyelids. To intimidate, to confuse, to protect against enemies.

Something that simply was a fact about them, just like this was about her.

A kunoichi used every skill she had to win, and the ability to hide where she was aiming a strike was a very good skill indeed.

April smiled, and opened her eyes again. With the eyelids hidden back underneath her top ones, no one could tell they were there. They’d stay there until she wanted them to close again, because they were _her_ mutations, and no one else could control them but her.

April took a deep breath, and turned away from the mirror; confidence restored in her steps.

April O’Neil, kunoichi, telepath, empath, and mutant.

It was just her, no one else.

It was just her.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd talk more, but I'm pressed for time right now, and the most I can say is:
> 
> Go check my tumblr for the post about April's ninja eyes; onthespectrumwriting.
> 
> Read my other works, including the Farm House arc multi-chapter fic I said I'd do months and months ago and only finally got around to it now.
> 
> Just read my stuff in general, I put up another two one-shots just yesterday for TMNT. I think you'd all enjoy them, seeing as my writing has come so far from where I started with this fic.
> 
> Have a nice monring/afternoon/evening, I have to run now; please take my advice! It gives me validation and motivation!


	21. the end.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> all good things come to an end, i'm afraid.

after due consideration, i bring this extremely old fic of mine to a close.

thank you all for giving me my boost to fame in the TMNT fandom, and helping me figure out how i actually wanted to write. i had fun doing xeno stuff with you all, but sadly i have grown beyond small drabbles and basic characterizations. please look into my profile to see what i  _really_ can do these days, as i think i've progressed monumentally in style and quality.

but don't think i've stopped incorporating xeno into things, i really love the inhuman characteristics of the brothers and their friends and can't go a fic without capitalizing on that. i just write things that are more than that these days.

anyhoo,

thank you all for supporting me, sincerely.

 

-W.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i never did escape this stupid thing. vvvvv

**Author's Note:**

> So to anyone who disagrees with how I wrote Donnie in this, you try working non-stop for twenty-four hours and then see how you feel.
> 
> (I also personally like the idea of Donnie forgetting how to interact with people socially sometimes. He literally didn't talk to anyone other than his family until he was fifteen.)
> 
> It's my genuine joy to think about how these kids work in terms of anatomy. Psychologically even more so, though I think I'll save that for another string of fics.


End file.
